


Adventure Buddies

by Rainbatches



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adventures, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Light-Hearted, M/M, Minor angst maybe, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, and two idiots falling for each other, i like fun things, just a bunch of friends getting to know each other, probably not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2018-12-12 12:46:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11737344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbatches/pseuds/Rainbatches
Summary: College AU where the Voltron gang are matched up randomly through their University to go on off-campus adventures together and they form a pretty tight group, if only Keith and Lance could get along.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based on a program my current University offers students, and I thought it would be a good idea to make a fic about it. This is my first Voltron fic so be gentle, and hopefully you enjoy it, and if not, at least I'm doing something with my time other than sleeping. Also, there are alternating POV's but I like writing in Keith's a little more because he's my soul sister. This isn't a very plot-centric fic btw. Just evolving friendships and all that jazz.

Keith lightly tapped his pen on his desk. He had been staring at the clock for the past five minutes, hoping that time would go by faster. It was only Wednesday but this was his last class for the week, and he even had the day off from work, so he was itching to get out and enjoy his freedom. He was lost in his own thoughts, wondering what he was going to do when he was released from class. Maybe he would go to the gym, maybe he’d go on a long run in the park, or maybe he’d work on his car. Now that his brother Shiro and him had moved from a small apartment to a house, he actually had space to work on his car. His thoughts busied his mind, and before he knew it, the professor finished lecturing, and dismissed the class. Keith shoved his notebook and pen into his backpack and quickly moved out of the classroom. He made his way down the hall and out the building, taking in the fresh air of being outside. 

As he walked down the cement path, he decided he was going to go to the Recreation Center to work out. He already had athletic attire on, as he usually did, because he loved being active, and was not opposed to spontaneous workout sessions. He walked the half mile pathway North to the Recreation Center, and there he was created by the front desk workers. Without a word, he gave them his student ID in exchange for a locker key. They handed it to him, and hold him to have a nice workout, and he mumbled a low thank you, and went on his way. Before he could reach the locker room, he spotted a silvery-long haired woman walking towards him. Keith quickly recognized her as Allura. She was one of the most attractive human beings that Keith had ever seen, and that wasn’t even his own subjective opinion. Sometimes being around her freaked him out because it was like being in the presence of an actual goddess. Keith knew Allura because of Shiro; the two were close friends, so Keith had been to dinner with the two a few times, and seen her at their home. She waved to him and stopped in front of him, seemingly wanting to talk to Keith.

“Hello Keith, Shiro has left for the day.” She said. Shiro was the Recreation Center’s Outdoor Program and Events Coordinator. He had accepted the job about a year ago, and it was because of that the brothers were able to move into an actual house. 

“Oh I’m just here to work out.” He said, a little awkwardly. It wasn’t often that the two talked individually, and even when Keith was around both Shiro and Allura, he didn’t say much to her. 

“Oh I gotcha. I have a class to teach at 5, so I won’t hold you up. Have a nice evening” She said, smiling and walking past Keith, giving him a small wave goodbye. Allura was currently getting her Master’s Degree in Sports Medicine and currently worked at the Recreation Center as a fitness instructor. Keith guessed that’s where Shiro and Allura had met, but he had never asked to confirm.  
After she left, Keith made his way to the locker room to throw his pack into a locker and start his work out. While he was in there he saw a brown-haired man in blue swim trunks taking a selfie in the mirror. 

Keith had a good work out and by the time he got home it was already dark. He walked through the front door of the house and immediately smelled the aroma of some kind of meal. He followed the smell through the living room and into the kitchen to see Shiro standing by the stove making something. He turned to him and smiled.

“Want some?” He asked, turning back to stir whatever he was making.

“What is it?” Keith asked, peering over Shiro’s shoulder to take a peek.

“Just some chicken with some sautéed vegetables.” Keith nodded to Shiro, and once he was done cooking, Shiro grabbed an extra plate and scrapped half of it into a plate for his younger brother.

Keith tore into it, and cherished each savory bite. Shiro sat across from him on the table, and smiled at him. Keith looked up and recognized the smile. It was Shiro’s “favor” smile.

“What do you want from me?” Keith asked in between bites. Shiro’s smile didn’t falter, and he chuckled a little bit.

“I just have a simple request to ask of you.” Keith grunted a bit and already didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t say anything but motioned for Shiro to continue.

“For awhile, at the Rec center we’ve been creating this system to match up students together and have them meet up and do off campus activities. You take a small survey about your likes and dislikes and it matches you with three other students, and it gives you six different activities to do for six weeks. It launched yesterday, and it’s called “Adventure Buddies.” I think you should do it.” Keith gave him an unconvinced look.

“It’s called “Adventure Buddies”? And you want me to participate?” He asked, and Shiro nodded, “No, I don’t think so.”

Shiro gave him a Dad look, but Keith was strong enough to keep himself from caving into his demands.

“Shiro, I can go outside and do things now. Why would I want to hang out with strangers?” He asked, trying to convince his brother that this idea wasn’t right for him.

“Keith…” Shiro started, but Keith just frowned, determined to stand his ground. “I think it would be good for you. You don’t have anyone you hang out with, and it would be nice to see you around other people for once.” Keith groaned, but kept his posture. There was no way he was going to sacrifice his own time to go on ‘adventures’ with a bunch of random people. He could only imagine how miserable it would be. 

“I hang out with you, Shiro, and- and sometimes Allura is there too!” Keith defended. Shiro shook his head and Keith knew this was a losing battle.

“Come on Keith. It’s a six week program. Once it is over, you’re done. Please, we’ve worked really hard on this. Do it for me?” That was it. Keith lost. How was he supposed to argue when Shiro pulls the ‘for me’ card? Keith let out a loud groan and dropped his head onto the table next to his food, with his arms dangling beside him. Keith didn’t even have to look but he knew that Shiro was smirking victoriously. 

That night, Keith was taking the survey and it was pretty extensive. It asked about his availability, his interests, things he didn’t like, things he was open to trying. It also asked for his year and major. Keith figured that they would try to diversify the group and try to make sure everyone wasn’t too alike. His laptop sat on top of his chest, as he laid on his bed. He scrolled through the list of activities that were offered and he was surprised on how many there were. There were things from different sports, to outdoor activities like hiking and camping, to even indoor activities like going to museums and arcades. Keith didn’t do much outside of camping and hiking. He clicked that he would be willing to do everything he hadn’t already said he was interested in.  
After finishing the survey, he hoped the students he was matched with were tolerable. He had never been social person, so he was a little more than nervous to be participating in something that would force him to be around other people. The webpage said that it would take at least two weeks for him to be matched up, so that gave him enough time to mentally prepare. 

**********

Lance was at his apartment when he got his email about who his Adventure Buddies were going to be. He was laying on the floor of his room, looking through Facebook when his phone buzzed, indicating an email. He saw the subject line and gritted his teeth in excitement. Lance had been waiting two weeks to see if he was going to be matched up with his yoga instructor, Allura. She was a truly marvelous woman, and Lance tapped his feet to the floor, waiting for the email to load, hoping to see her name. The email loaded and Lance scanned the list. The first name was his own, and the second was his best friend Hunk’s, the third was someone named Katie, and his excitement dropped when he saw the last name. Keith Kogane. Lance wanted to scream in frustration. How could this be? Out of the 15,000 people that attended Altea University, he was matched with Keith Kogane, also known as the worst person in the world. 

“HUNK!” Lance yelled. After a few moments, Hunk burst through the door, with an oven mitten over his right hand. Lance figured he was baking something, as usual, but he didn’t care, this was important.

“What’s wrong?” Hunk asked, looking down at Lance on the floor. Lance held up his phone to Hunk and whined to his roommate.

“We got our Adventure Buddy list, and look who’s on it.” Hunk took the phone with his left hand and scanned the list for a moment.

“Aw, dude we’re on it together. That’s cool!” He said, obviously not sensing or caring about Lance’s dilemma. 

“Yeah, but look at the last name.” He said. Hunk looked back at the phone and titled his head.

“Keith Kogane?” He asked, confused why that was an issue for Lance.

“Yes! Keith! This is awful, man!” Hunk handed Lance back his phone, and thought long and hard about why Keith was an issue to Lance, but then he remembered.

“Isn’t he the one that got a better grade than you in your freshman chemistry class?” The big guy asked.

“YES!” Lance shouted, raising his arms into the air, “He showed up to class like 50% of the time and got a better grade than me! And I always see him in my science classes, and he’s always trying to one-up me!” Hunk didn’t look too convinced about Lance’s rant. “And he’s always at the gym, lifting weights, and I hate it!”

“Lance, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you might be over reacting.” Hunk said, trying to calm his friend down. Lance brought his arms down and covered his face. He ignored Hunk and kept complaining. 

“I only wanted to do this thing because Allura told me to and I wanted to be in her group!” He took a deep breath, “And now! I’m stuck with Mullet-man for six weeks!” Lance turned over to his side, facing Hunk, and frowned. Hunk knelt down and patted Lance’s head.  
“There, there buddy. At least you’ll have me with you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang meet up with each other and Lance and Keith get off on a rocky start

Turns out two weeks were not enough time for Keith to prepare. He was sitting at a table in the campus’s restaurant Voltron, alone, waiting for the others to show up. The email he had received two weeks prior explained they were to meet at Voltron at 5:00 PM on that day. Keith sat with his arms crossed, becoming more impatient by the second. He told himself that if the other students were so much as a minute late, he was going to leave and forget he had signed up for this whole program. He glanced down at his phone and the time read 4:58pm and he was about to stand up and leave when a person approached him. He looked up and saw a short girl standing in front of him. She had short brown hair, and glasses. She looked familiar for some reason, but he wasn’t sure why.

“You’re Keith, right?” She asked, and Keith nodded, not sure how she knew it was him. “I’m Katie Holt, from the Adventure Buddy thing, but just call me Pidge.” She stuck out her hand and Keith slowly grabbed it to shake it.

“How did you who I was?” He asked. She smiled and took a seat next to him.

“I’m Matt Holt’s sister.” She said. It took Keith a moment to recollect his memories and figure out who that was. Then it struck him.

“Shiro’s friend!” He said, and Pidge nodded smiling.

“Do you know anyone else we’re meeting?” Keith asked. Pidge shook her head, and opened a menu that was in front of her.

“No idea. Honestly I’m only doing this because Matt helped program the survey system, and he wanted me to see if it worked.” Keith half-smiled, amused.

“Funny, because Shiro made me do this too.” He said, watching the door of the restaurant to see if anyone else came in.

 “Well that makes me feel a little better." She said. Keith liked her, and he hoped the other two students were like her. Keith also opened the menu now that he knew he wasn’t going to leave. Glancing at his phone again, he noticed that it was 5:06pm and he hoped that if anything, it would just be him and Pidge, but he was wrong. Right after he looked at the time, two students came running into Voltron, both panting. One was tall and had dark-skin, brown hair and blue eyes, and the other was a little big, and he also had dark skin, but much darker hair. The tall one looked around Voltron and made eye contact with Keith. He had a giant frown on his face, and Keith looked behind him to see if he was looking at someone else, but he wasn’t. Keith turned back to the tall one who was marching over to the table, and Keith had no idea why he was sporting such a look on his face. The two men stood by the table and Pidge greeted them, introducing herself. They unfortunately were the last two of the Adventure Buddy group. The big guy seemed nice and easy-going, but the tall one kept glaring at Keith and he had no idea why. They sat down and the big one introduced himself as Hunk, and the other, as Lance.

“That’s Keith.” Pidge said, pointing to Keith and Hunk shot him a smile, but Keith couldn’t take Lance glaring at him anymore.

“Can I help you?” Keith asked with an accusatory tone.

“No.” Lance replied, before looking at his menu. Keith rolled his eyes and huffed quietly. Hopefully these six weeks would be over soon.

“What is everyone’s year and major?” Hunk asked, trying his best to create a conversation.

“Computer Science, and I’m a Sophomore.” Pidge said, “What about you, big guy?”

“I’m Mechanical Engineering and I’m a Junior this year.” Hunk said, “And Lance is Biology with a Pre-Veterinary track, and he’s a senior.” Pidge turned her attention to Keith, who had said the least amount.

“And you?” Keith started to answer when Lance interrupted him.

“Mullet is Biology like me, but with a Pre-Physical Therapy track.” Keith furrowed his eyebrows in what Lance had just said.

“Did you just call me Mullet?” He asked, completely ignoring the fact that somehow Lance knew what his major was.

“That’s what’s on your head, right?” Lance asked, obviously baiting Keith. It worked too, because Keith responded quickly to his own defense.

“It’s not a Mullet, who even are you?!” Lance gaped at what Keith had just said, as if he insulted the tall boy’s entire family.

“Lance McClain. You know, you’re rival?” Keith just stared back at him in confusion. Lance threw his hands in the air dramatically. “Come on! You don’t know who I am?” Keith shook his head, trying to remember if he ever saw this person. Then it hit him, he remembered a person taking a selfie in the gym locker room mirror.

“Oh, I think I saw you taking pictures of yourself at the gym.” He said. Lance's face dropped even more and Keith didn’t think a person could look so offended.

“Dude seriously! We’ve had at least 5 classes together since freshman year! We’re rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, always competing together.” Lance sounded desperate, but Keith had no idea what he was talking about. He honestly never paid any attention to who was in his classes, so it was possible that Lance was in a few, but for them to be rivals was absurd. He had never once competed with him.

“Sorry, but I think you’re competing with yourself, because I don’t remember you.” Lance froze, and looked hurt. Keith heard him mumble something in Spanish, but he didn’t speak it so he just shrugged it off.

“Anyways…” Pidge started, “What’s the first activity you guys want to do? It looks like everyone has Sundays available, and the email gave us a list of six activities, should we decide what to do and we can start next week?”

“Let’s start with something simple.” Hunk said. He pulled out his phone and brought up the email with the list of activities. “How about we go bowling? It’s cheap.”  
Everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement. The rest of the time at Voltron, the group chatted and had basic small talk conversations with each other. Keith didn’t talk much, but he did listen. Lance and Hunk were roommates and had known each other since they were young kids. Pidge was extremely close to her brother, Matt and her father, who was an astronomical researcher that was on sabbatical in a different country. Before everyone left, they exchanged phone numbers and decided they would all text each other a good time to meet for bowling on Sunday. They said their goodbyes, and headed in their own separate directions. Keith hated to admit it, but he didn’t dislike the group, and he was even somewhat excited to see everyone again, well, except for Lance, but even that idiot didn’t ruin it completely for him.

***********************

 

“I liked them.” Hunk was saying. He drove out of the campus parking lot with Lance in the passenger seat. “Pidge is funny, and Keith is-“

“Right there!” Lance shouted. Hunk’s train of thought broke, and he looked over towards where Lance had his eyes set. There, ahead of them Keith was walking on the side-walk, away from campus. “Quick, do you have something to throw at him?”

Hunk rolled his eyes, and slowed down the car as they approached Keith.

“Hunk, what are you doing?” Lance asked, almost sounding betrayed.

“I’m seeing if he wants a ride home.” Hunk came to a stop and rolled down the passenger window and waved at Keith. Keith looked over at them, almost confused at first. “Do you want a ride?” He asked loudly, over Lance. Keith shook his head.

“No, I don’t live very far, but thanks Hunk.” Keith let out a small smile, and waved the boys goodbye and went on his way. Hunk rolled up the window and started driving again, passing Keith. Meanwhile Lance was staring at Hunk like he had seen a ghost.

“I don’t think that was Keith. Did you see that? He smiled! I have never seen that man in the past three years I’ve had classes with him, smile. Maybe it was a clone. Does he have a twin?” Hunk snorted in amusement.      

“Lance, calm down. He was just showing gratitude. Don’t over think it, buddy.”

“I don’t know Hunk. It seems pretty suspicious.”

 

A couple of days later Hunk decided to create a group message to organize their events.

_You’ve been added to the group message “Team Voltron”._

Lance looked at his phone and then peered over at Hunk, who was on the other end of the sofa.

“Voltron?” Lance asked. Hunk smiled and shrugged.

“I just figured that since we all met there, that could be our chat name. I mean, I can change it.” Lance shook his head and leaned back to his original position.

“No, I like it.” He said. Lance opened the group message and started typing.

 _Hunk and I thought we could go to Balmera Bowl, it’s pretty close to campus. If we go after 7, they have a college discount._ He waited a few minutes when his phone buzzed.

_Pidge: Sounds good to me._

_Keith: *thumbs up emoji*_

Lance glared at his phone and quickly typed and sent two thumbs up emoji’s in response hoping it would bother Keith, which it must have because then Mullet sent back three thumbs up emoji’s. Lance smiled, knowing how he would win. He repeatedly jabbed his finger down on the screen to get as many thumbs up emoji’s as he could and sent them.

_Pidge: Can you two not do this please?_

The next day Lance was at the Rec center, about to swim some laps in the pool when he saw Keith in the locker room. Lance wasn’t sure if he should talk to him or not, so he decided to shoot him a glare. The glare was in vain though, because Keith didn’t acknowledge it or him. The shorter boy locked his locker and was about to leave and Lance decided he was not going to be ignored.

“Keith!” Lance hissed. Keith turned around and seemed surprised to see Lance there. “Don’t ignore me while I’m glaring at you!”

“Why are you glaring at me?” He asked, scowling.

“So you know I don’t like you. Now you know, you can leave.” Lance made a shooing motion with his hands, causing Keith to roll his eyes, and cross his arms. He was wearing a black tank top and Lance hadn’t noticed it before, but Keith had some good-looking biceps. He quickly pushed the thought down though because he was not about to admire the person he hated.

“What do you even do here? I’ve never seen you at cardio or weights.” Keith asked, eyeing Lance up and down and for some reason that made him feel awkward.

“I swim laps here, and I attend Allura’s yoga class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” He explained, trying not to think about the fact that Keith was looking at him in his swim attire. Keith perked up when he heard Allura’s name.

“I know her. She’s nice.”

“She is! And one day she’ll realize how amazing I am, and we will have gorgeous babies.” Lance gushed. He always flirted with her, but he was always shot down, which he didn’t understand because Lance thought he was a catch. Keith burst into laughter, and Lance frowned at him. It was weird to see Keith laugh, and Lance would love to tease him about it, but it was directed at Lance and that got under his skin.

“What is so funny, Mullet?” Lance asked offended.

“No-nothing, it’s just you and Allura. That’s a good joke. I was wrong about you Lance, you are funny.” Ouch. Well if Lance wasn’t already offended he sure was now.

“Oh and what, would you and Allura be a better couple?!” Lance was getting angry. He knew Keith was a jerk, but that comment was just not cool. Keith looked at him quizzically, as if what Lance had just said was plain stupid.

“Lance, I wasn’t trying to say you weren’t good enough for her, I just meant- you’re not her type.” Keith was such a hard person to read, and at this point Lance wasn’t really sure what Keith was trying to say, because those words did not make him feel better.

“Whatever Mullet. I have laps to swim. I hope your stupid hair gets caught in a door.” And Lance shoved passed Keith, stomping towards the pool area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will eventually make these longer chapters, but right now I'm establishing, and I just really want to get into the meat of the story, but as papa Shiro would say. Patience yields focus.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith had never been good at communicating with other people. He was brash, and said exactly what he thought when he thought it and sometimes he guessed that came off as rude. He truly did not mean to offend Lance, but Lance was the one who stormed off and didn’t even let Keith explain himself, so he wasn’t feeling terribly guilty about the exchange. It wasn’t that Keith didn’t think Lance was worthy of Allura, it was just in all the time he knew her, he would have thought she would eventually end up with Shiro, or someone similar to him. Lance just wasn’t a person that he could see Allura with that's all, no need to get offended by it.

 Keith was doing homework in his room, and the exchange he had with Lance kept resurfacing in his thoughts. It was distracting to him, and the more distracted he felt, the more worked up he got. He let out a deep sigh and leaned back against his chair. A break was needed for him to reorganize his thoughts and get back on task. He pulled out his phone and tapped on the YouTube app. He scrolled through a list of videos that were recommended to him and he finally clicked on one that was about Cryptids of the USA. He watched it for some time before his phone buzzed, and a message banner was brought up to his screen.

_Hunk: Everyone still good for tomorrow?_

Keith wasn’t a very good texter so all he replied with was another thumb up emoji. He stared at the screen, expecting Lance to say something that would rile him up, but it never happened. Lance responded with a “Yup” and that was it. Keith wondered if he hurt his feelings more than he had thought, but Lance seemed like the type of person to bounce back almost immediately after an insult was thrown at him. Keith decided it wasn’t worth the effort of thinking about it because Lance was an adult and could get over it. Despite not wanting to put the effort into thinking about it, it stayed in the back of him mind through out the entire YouTube video. By the time the video ended, it was late, and in that moment sleeping felt more important than homework.

 

 

The next day Keith drove to the bowling alley, and once again he was the first one to get there. He leaned against the brick wall of the building and tapped his foot against the ground impatiently. Quickly looking at his phone he saw that the time read “7:05pm”. He grunted and kept waiting. Then he saw a green car pull up and Pidge hopped out of the passenger seat. Her older brother was driving and they waved to each other before he drove off, leaving her. She saw Keith and smiled.

“First to arrive again?” She asked and Keith nodded. He hoped that Hunk and Lance being late was not going to become a pattern. “Let’s go inside and at least buy a couple of games.”

The pair walked together inside the building and Keith wanted to cringe at how obnoxious the place was. Everything was brightly colored and there were kids running around everywhere. Loud pop music was playing and Keith instantly wished he was anywhere else. This was definitely not somewhere he would be unless he had to. Truthfully he had never been bowling, but he didn’t expect it to be like this and after seeing it he didn't expect to come back.

“Can we get two games?” Pidge asked the lady at the counter. She was tall and built, and Keith was impressed, she could probably bench him under the table. Her voice was soft and sweet though.

“How many people?” She asked, making some clicking sounds on the computer in front of her.

“4. The other two dummy's aren’t here yet.” The lady smiled and entered stuff in on her keyboard. She charged them and directed them to their lane, after handing them their shoes. Keith and Pidge found their lane, and started taking of their shoes.

“This is so gross. How often do they clean these things?” Keith asked, quickly sniffing the rental shoe. Pidge scrunched her face in disgust as she watched him.

“I don’t really know, and I don’t want to think about it. Just put them on.” Keith was glad he was wearing old socks, because the shoes didn’t look too sanitary. They were oddly shaped and he could tell at one point they may have been multi-colored but that was a long time ago. Now, they looked like different shades of faded gray. He tied the unnecessarily long shoe laces and stood up, feeling ridiculous.

“These look horrible.” He whined and Pidge gave him an annoyed look.

“Stop being an edge-lord for 20 seconds and just enjoy the experience of the gross bowling shoes. Man, you act like you’ve never been bowling.” Keith stared at her with a blank face.

“Keith! Have you never been bowling?”  The boy shook his head.

“No but it can’t be hard. You just throw the ball and aim for the pins?” Pidge looked like she wanted to strangle Keith.

“There’s trajectory involved. Bowling is a skill.” She said and Keith looked over her and saw the type of people bowling and suddenly he wasn’t so sure about that.

“There are old people here, and they’re using bumpers. Can’t be that hard.” Pidge shook her head at him.

It wasn’t long before Lance and Hunk caught up with them. Hunk apologized, saying Lance took forever to get ready. Keith eyed him and he couldn’t tell what he did that would take so long. He looked how he did every day, but maybe his hair was combed different. Keith couldn’t tell and as Lance was putting on his shoes, he caught Keith looking.

“What?” Lance asked, with a bit of a hiss. Keith tilted his head and smirked a bit.

“I’m just trying to figure out why you needed so much extra time to get ready with your current appearance." Lance gaped, but then drew his face back into a snarl. Neither Pidge nor Hunk said anything; they just stood there with troubled looks. Keith could tell that Lance cared very much about his appearance and that he had hit a nerve. The tall boy stood up quickly and stomped over to Keith, getting into his face.

“Oh so first I’m not good enough for Allura and now I’m ugly!” Keith didn’t lose his composure, even with Lance right by his face.

“You called yourself ugly, not me.” Lance was actually growling now. Keith was only baiting him because that’s all Lance ever liked to do with him.

“We can’t all be lady-killers like you! Why don’t you go sweep Allura off her feet and have stupid haired children together!”  Keith was becoming annoyed with this whole Allura thing, and he soon forgot he was only teasing and fought back.

“Shut up, Lance. Get over yourself!”

“No you get over yourself!

“Stop being a child!”

 Each retort got progressively louder and Keith and Lance didn’t even realize how close they were to each other’s face. Keith had gotten on his tippy-toes to meet Lance’s height, and Lance was pressing Keith back down with his forehead.

“Um you two are making a scene, can you please stop.” Hunk spoke up, and without saying anything else the two boys tore away from each other, both crossing their arms and refusing to look at each other again.

“Hunk, why don’t you and Lance go get a pitcher of soda and some nachos while Keith and I enter everyone’s names into the score board.” Pidge suggested. Hunk nodded and grabbed Lance by the shoulders and the two walked away. Even as they left Keith refused to look at Lance.

“You two are idiots.” Pidge said, entering everyone’s names into the system.

“Oh I’m an idiot?” Keith was offended that Pidge would lump him together with Lance.

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” She didn’t even look back at Keith, and once everyone’s name was entered, she motioned him to follow her. They walked down to a large rack with balls, and Pidge selected hers, and Keith followed suit and picked a nice 11 lb red bowling ball. By the time they made it back down, Hunk and Lance were already there, with their balls picked out and a pitcher of soda and a plate of nachos on the small round table that was centered at each lane. They decided to start the game and the first person to go was Lance. He basically pranced over and with ease rolled the ball down the lane. It was nearly a strike, but there were 2 pins he had missed. He got them both though during his second bowl. Keith hated to admit it but Lance looked good while bowling. All the movements he made flowed well and looked effortless. It was surprising considering how lame Lance actually was. When his turn was over, he sat down across from Keith with a cocky expression.

“I’m going to win by the way.” Keith frowned, and even though he had no idea about how to bowl, there was no way that Keith was going to let Lance beat him.

Hunk went next and Keith expected the big guy to be better, but he was terrible. When he released the ball from his fingers, it actually flew for a few seconds before hitting the ground with a big thud and then going into the gutter. Despite not being very good, Hunk looked like he was having a good time, and Lance cheered him on, hyping him up.

Next up was Keith. He had never done this but from watching the other people playing and Lance, he figured he could fake it well. He grabbed his ball and slowly approached the lane. He swung his right arm behind him and once it came back in front of him, he released and the ball flew down the lane. The unfortunate part was that even with the speed, the ball simply veered off to the left and went directly into the gutter. Keith gritted his teeth and there was a loud chuckle from Lance.

“You suck!” He teased, now intensely watching Keith as he was about to bowl again. He was trying not to feel self-conscious about that. Once the ball was spat up from the machine, Keith took a deep breath and picked it back up.

“You can do this.” He muttered to himself, and made his way up and swung out the ball. It did a little better, but it still veered left and only hit three pins. Keith turned back around to the group and pouted. Maybe Keith would get the hang of it and end up beating Lance later in the game. When he sat back down and sulked for sucking so bad, Pidge made her way up to the lane. She grabbed her ball, but didn’t put her fingers in the holes. Instead she held it by two hands, and once she got to the line, she squatted slightly, and started swinging the ball between her legs.

“What is she doing?” Keith asked quizzically. Lance was quick to respond.

“She’s doing the granny roll”, Lance stood up and shouted to Pidge, “No, please have some dignity!”

After a few swings, Pidge let go and the ball slowly rolled down the lane. There was a burst of laughter from the three guys, and Lance put his hand on Keith’s shoulder because he was laughing so hard at the roll Pidge just did. Despite the laughing, Pidge was unfazed, in fact she was smiling as her ball slowly made it down the lane. The boys laughter soon died down because the ball managed to stay centered and when it hit the pin in the middle, all the other ones were knocked down. The expressions plastered across the boys’ faces were made of pure shock. No one else made fun of her roll, because somehow her little squat gifted her a strike. 

 

The game continued with everyone enjoying each other’s company and plenty of laughs. Every time Hunk would roll, the rest of the group would cheer him on, embarrassing him and knowing he was going to do poorly. Lance was bowling really well and Keith liked to watch his form every time it was his turn. When Pidge rolled, everyone waited for her granny roll to miss, but somehow she earned a strike every turn. As for Keith, he was getting better, but every time he rolled and did poorly, Lance would boo him. It was annoying at first, but as the night progressed, Keith could tell that there was nothing malicious about it.

In between the first and second game, they decided to take a break. They all sat at the table and joked about their bowling skills. Keith was laughing at a joke Hunk made and he leaned back, his elbow moving slightly on the table. He didn’t realize that the pitcher of soda was there and he accidentally knocked it over and it spilled all over Lance. The tall boy quickly shot up and then glared at Keith.

“Keith what the hell!”

“Shoot, I’m sorry Lance!” Keith stood up too, and looked around to see if there were any napkins or anything to clean it up with.

“You did that on purpose!” Lance shouted. Keith was taken aback and anger festered up inside him.

“No I didn’t!”

“It’s a giant pitcher, are you too blind to see that!” Lance was trying to shake the wet out of his shirt.

“I said sorry!” Keith yelled back. He heard Pidge mutter a “Here we go again,” before taking her phone out and playing some game.

“Well I want you to buy me a new shirt! I’m all sticky!” Keith let out a loud groan, and pushed Lance as he started towards the small gift shop the bowling alley had.

“I’ll get you a new shirt if it makes you shut up!”

 

The gift shop wasn’t very big. It was about the size of a medium sized bedroom, but it had a lot of cool trinkets. There was a small selection of shirts and at first Keith grabbed a simple “Balmera Bowl” shirt off the rack, but then he saw a shirt so perfect for Lance that he absolutely had to buy it.

When he arrived back to the group, Lance was standing there impatiently. Keith smiled and tossed him the shirt. Lance caught it and opened it up and frowned slightly, muttering something before turning to the bathroom to change.

“Why’d he have that reaction?” Pidge asked. Keith was still smiling,

“You’ll see.”

A few moments later Lance came out of the bathroom wearing the gray shirt Keith bought. When he was close enough Pidge and Hunk started laughing. Printed on the shirt was a picture of a cartoon woman and the words that read out “I’m only here for the balls.” Lance seemed unaltered by everyone’s reaction.

“You know Keith, this joke is on you, because I rock this shirt.” Keith laughed softly because of how proud Lance looked. He had to admit that Lance did in fact rock that shirt.

 

The second game was just as fun as the first. By the time it was over, Pidge had won, Lance came in second, Keith in third, and poor Hunk was last. They walked out to the parking lot together and it was surprising, but Keith wished they could have hung out together more that night. The company was good and Keith had never felt this satisfied after a social outing.  Pidge got into her brother’s car, who was there waiting for her, and they drove away.  Keith started walking towards his car when he heard Lance shout at him.

“Hey Mullet, better hone your skills because I want a real challenge next time!” Keith looked at Lance and the corners of his mouth twitched, but he was determined fight back the smile, so he turned back around and shouted back,

“You got it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of dialogue in this, and that's always been my problem so I will attempt to cut that down. Hope some of you are enjoying this.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance realizes a thing, and also gets dirt on Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided that I need to write more of this because I cannot for the life of me find light-hearted Klance fics, so dang it, here I am.

It was a Wednesday evening, and the sun was just starting to set. The sky was turning orange, and there was a crisp breeze out. Lance smiled, and took a deep breath in. He loved this time of day. The way the sky slowly faded to dark, and the cooler temperature. Something about just felt right. He was taking in the air when he was abruptly pulled and stumbled a few steps. He looked down and almost forgot he was dog walking. A large brown dog boofed at him and he smiled fondly at the boy. Lance didn’t have a ‘real’ job. He made his money by house/pet-sitting, and dog walking. Somehow, after doing it for a few years, he was able to make a good chunk of money. This dog in particular was from a new client. The person was Allura’s uncle Coran, and the dog showed as much energy as his owner.

Lance looked back up and stared down the rows of houses. He had never been through this particular neighborhood before, but it was very well kept. Most of the houses were large and evenly spread out with most of the yards covered in green grass and trees. The neighborhood was so close to his school, he wondered why he never taken a walk through it before. The dog boofed again and Lance gave into his demands.

“Alright Wimbleton, let’s go.” And Lance stepped forward, the dog happily walking along side of him. The two had only made it a few blocks down when someone caught Lance’s attention. In the drive-way of a medium-sized tan house was someone leaning into an old red Mustang. As he approached, he appreciated the shape of their lower-half. The person moved back a step and that is when Lance noticed the black mullet-like hair. _Gross_ , he thought, scolding himself for checking out Keith, of all people.

 He wasn’t sure if he should talk to him or not. He looked busy and although Lance did end up having fun at bowling, he was still a bitter about the whole Allura thing. Hunk had told him that he was just over-reacting and that Keith seemed like the type of person who just wasn’t good with words. Hunk was a pretty good judge of character and he trusted him so Lance decided to give him one last chance.

“What are you doing?” Lance asked loudly, now in front of the drive-way Keith was in. Hearing someone must have taken him by surprised because he jerked up and hit his head on the ceiling of the car. Lance heard him swear and bring his hands up to rub his head and Lance had to hold back a chuckle. He looked over and eyed the Cuban boy. His face twisted into his natural scowl the moment they made eye-contact, and for a moment Lance wished he hadn’t said anything to him and just kept walking.

“I live here, Lance.” Keith replied, moving out of the car and turning towards Lance.

“Well duh, but what are you doing?” He asked again, this time pointing to the car. Keith made a little ‘o’ with his mouth, finally understanding what Lance was saying. Honestly, Lance didn’t get it. Keith was so smart when it came to academics, but make him talk to someone and you’d swear he’s never had a social encounter before in his life.

“I’m cleaning my car,” his gazed moved to Wimbleton and he narrowed his eyes, “What are you doing?” His voice had a bit of suspicion to it and Lance chuckled.

“I’m just dog-walking for Allura’s uncle. Why, do you have a problem with dogs?” Keith seemed hesitant to answer. Wimbleton wagged his tail, and he could tell that the ball of fur was getting antsy again.

“No, I just prefer cats.” Keith finally answered, not taking his eyes off Wimbleton. The dog finally noticed Keith staring at him and tugged on the leash a bit, moving towards the shorter boy. Keith’s frown deepened even more and Lance felt another laugh coming to surface.

“Well if you don’t not like them, then you won’t mind if he says hello.” Lance let go of the leash and as he did Keith’s eyes widened.

“Lance don’t!” But it was too late, Wimbleton was already bouncing towards him and before Lance’s eyes, Keith quickly turned around and climbed onto the top of his car, squatting and angrily staring at Lance. Wimbleton tried to jump for him, but he was not able to reach Keith.

Lance burst into laughter and Keith’s eyes became daggers, piercing into him. Normally, a look like that would terrify him, but the situation was just so funny, that Lance couldn’t stop laughing.

“Shut up!” He heard Keith yell, but it was no use. Lance couldn’t believe that Keith, the edge-lord, was afraid of dogs.  

After figuring he had tortured Keith enough, he called Wimbleton back, grabbing a hold of the leash and wiping away a small tear that had formed in his eye. Keith was still squatted on top of the car, with his arms draping down, and he still had the look of hate towards Lance.

“I can’t believe you’re afraid of dogs.”

“I’m not afraid! What if he knocked me over!” Lance rolled his eyes in amusement. Keith wasn’t fooling him, and he was kind of glad he had some kind of dirt on him now. 

A few moments later, the sound of an approaching car grabbed both of the boys’ attention. They looked over and saw a pink bug pulling up beside the edge of the road. Lance frowned and remembered that he actually hated Keith.

“Why is Allura here?” Lance asked accusatory and Keith looked confused.

“Why do you know what her car looks like?”

“Because! I pet-sit for her cat. Why is she here!” Lance wasn’t sure why he was getting defensive. Sure, he had a small crush on Allura, but it wasn’t enough for him to feel this riled up. He guessed that it was because of all people, she was visiting Keith’s house. Lance narrowed his eyes and thought about it. During their arguments, Keith had never denied anything going on between him and Allura. Although it didn't mean they were together, it did explain Keith's initial comment towards Lance in the locker room.This situation was making him mad now and he didn't like getting angry, so he decided to eject himself and leave. He turned around and started off back down the road, not saying goodbye.

“Lance!” He heard Keith call, and simultaneously he heard Allura’s car door slam shut, and she must have noticed him too.

“Oh Lance! And Wimbleton!” She called out. Her accent and voice were always so beautiful and soft and although he could ignore Keith, he would feel guilty ignoring Allura. He turned back and put on a fake smile.

“Princess! Man, if you wanted to see me that bad, you could have asked. Not need to follow me!” He heard a groan from Keith, but he didn’t want his façade to fail so he ignored it. Allura rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on her face.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, walking up to him and petting Wimbleton.

“I was just taking Wimbleton back home.” The tall girl was busy looking and petting Wimbleton, but she replied back to him.

“You should come in! I’m making dinner, and I’m sure Shiro wouldn’t mind.” Her gaze shifted from the dog to the house and that was when she noticed Keith on the car.

“Do you think Shiro would mind if we had two more guests for dinner?” Keith shrugged with his arms raised.

“Go ask him.” His reply was a little dry. Allura didn’t seem to be bothered by this though and simply nodded, standing up and moving towards the house.

“Lance stay here! Keith, I’m going to ask Shiro!”

“Do what you gotta do.” Keith replied, with that same dry tone. Allura’s smile never left her face as she ran up the drive-way and disappeared into the house. Lance just stared at Keith with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe that Keith was talking to her in such a rude way. What the heck did she see in him? Maybe Keith was just really good in bed? Keith’s attention snapped back to Lance.

“What?” He asked.

“You just- what does she see in you?”

Keith was confused again for a moment, but then it looked like he realized something.

“I don’t know, since she comes here for my brother, _not_ me.”

Oh. Well then Lance supposed that made sense, actually it made complete sense. There was no way Allura would be interested in Keith. The brooding guy probably couldn’t attract flies with his attitude. Hunk was right, he was over-reacting; there was no reason to be upset. At this point it was almost comical. Keith and Allura, he should have known better. Lance sighed in relief, knowing that Keith had about as much of a chance with Allura as he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short but I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I'm glad I've resolved this whole Allura thing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who knew Keith secretly liked carnival games

Lance wasn’t quite sure how he was seated across the dark maple dinner table from Keith. He wasn’t even really given a choice in the matter. One moment Allura was telling him to stay and then suddenly he was inside Keith’s house, waiting for Allura and Shiro to make home-made sushi. When he first entered the house, he noticed how well decorated it was. It wasn’t much, but the walls were painted light beige with paintings of landscape placed in a symmetrical order. Pictures of Keith and Shiro stood on top of a fire place mantle that was in front of a dark leather couch covered in light throw pillows. Lance figured Shiro was the one who decorated the house because there was no way Keith could have such an elegant taste. Speaking of Shiro, Lance fully understood Keith’s comments back at the rec center. If Shiro was the type of guy Allura was interested in then Keith was right, Lance wasn’t her type. Shiro was downright gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous you see plastered on a Calvin Klein ad. It wasn’t that Lance didn’t think himself as attractive but the differences in aesthetics between the two were enough for him to get it. As he entered the house, Shiro greeted him with a huge smile and a strong hand shake that made Lance feel a little intimidated.

Watching him and Allura in the kitchen from the dining room working together on the meal, and noticing how gentle he was with her made him wonder if Keith had this sort of side to him too. Lance turned his head back to where Keith was seated and watched him, searching for some indication of softness. What he got in return was a brooding man, picking at the inside of his left ear with his finger expressing the most bored look upon his face. There was a part of Lance that wondered if he hadn’t currently been sitting at the table, if Keith would have been somewhere else other than the dining room. Lance glanced back at Shiro, who was currently laughing and softly touching Allura’s shoulder, and then turned his attention back to Keith. How in the world was someone like Shiro related to Keith? How did Keith become the King of Displeasure while growing up with his brother?

A small bark snapped Lance out of his thoughts and he looked at Wimbleton who was in the kitchen with Shiro and Allura, dancing around them in excitement. Allura bent down to feed him a piece of cucumber that she was using, and then happily chewed it down.

“Sorry, you have to be here.” Keith’s voice grabbed Lance’s attention once more. He was now sitting back with his arms crossed, looking down. The tan boy shook his head and smiled.

“Nah. Don’t worry about it. I didn’t have anything else to do. Besides, Shiro and Allura are fun.” Keith did not return Lance’s smile, but he did sigh and turn his head towards the couple. Lance wasn’t sure what to say next. Because Keith was so hard to read, he wasn’t sure if he had said something that offended him or if he was just being Keith. Either way, he didn’t like the tension that was built off it, so he decided to change the subject.

“Oh! Since we’re here, we can discuss what event we want to do this Sunday!”  This deflection seemed to work and the tension started to dissolve.

“Do you have anything in mind?” Lance smiled at this and sat up straight.

“I’m glad you asked! You see, on the email it suggests an arcade, but what’s better than an arcade? The State Fair, which is conveniently in the next town over this week.” Keith raised an eyebrow and puckered his lips together in an unconvinced expression.

“The State Fair?” He asked, “Isn’t that for hillbillies?”

“Well if it is, then you’ll fit right in with your hair!” Lance teased. Keith rolled his eyes in annoyance and Lance smirked at him. “But no, it is not for hillbillies, it is full of deep fried food, fair rides, carnies, and games!”

“I know what it is, Lance. I’ve been to one, but from what I remember, it’s just a bunch of people dressed in cowboy boots, and pig races.”

“Well then we definitely have to go! C’mon, don’t be such a buzz kill!” Lance pouted, and gave Keith his best puppy-dog look. Normally, the look would break even the strongest of people, but Keith was holding his own, meeting Lance’s pout with a deep frown. Soon Lance’s cheeks started to hurt, but he was determined to break Keith with his look. Finally, Keith shut his eyes and let out a sigh.

“If everyone else wants to go then I’ll go.” Lance let out a small victorious cheer. He always knew his puppy-dog look work, even on the most formidable of people.

That was about as much as Lance and Keith talked that night one-on-one. Shortly after, Allura and Shiro announced dinner and they all chatted together while they ate their sushi. Lance was informed that every Tuesday night Allura came over and made the boys dinner, and if Lance wanted, he was more than welcomed to come on those nights and join them. Normally, Lance would agree to it, considering how nice they were to him, and how welcomed he felt, but he wasn’t sure how Keith felt. He didn’t want to impose on him and the two boys weren’t even really friends. At this point, Lance felt closer to Shiro than he did with Keith and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He supposed it was slightly his fault; he did greet Keith with a stink-eye when they first met, but he was the one always one-upping him. Well, at least that’s what he somehow convinced himself of. The truth was that Keith didn’t even know Lance existed, which irked him even more because he spent the last few years trying to beat Keith, and all he was doing was competing with himself. How do you have a handful of classes with the same person for years and not even at least notice them?

  As far as Lance was concerned, Keith was still a major jerk, so it didn’t matter if it was his fault originally or not.

At the end of the evening Allura offered to take Lance back to drop Wimbleton off and then drive him home. After dropping the dog off and Lance making sure he was fed and watered, he hopped back into Allura’s car and they drove off. Most of the trip was spent in comfortable silence until Allura spoke up as she pulled into Lance’s apartment parking lot.

“Thanks for staying tonight. I hope you had a good time.” Lance smiled at her and clasped his hands together.

“Thank you, beautiful. It was muy bien.”  Allura smiled at him, and he opened the door to get out of the car when Allura spoke up again.

“And uh thanks again for hanging out with Keith.” Lance turned back to her, already half-way out the car. The words took him by surprise and he just grinned at her.

“Yeah no problem. He’s fun to make fun of.” Allura’s gaze softened and she looked down at the steering wheel, gently clenching onto it.

“I really do appreciate it, and Shiro does too. Keith is an adult and can take care of himself, but it is nice to see him around other people, and I’m glad it’s you.” He didn’t know what to say, and her words made his body fill with heat, especially in his face. He didn’t want her to see his blush so he turned away, now fully stepping out of the car. The boy awkwardly raised his right arm and scratched the back of his head before muttering a weak thank you to Allura.

“Have a goodnight Lance, and don’t forget, you’re always invited over for family dinner!” Lance slammed her door and she drove off. Embarrassed, Lance cursed at himself in Spanish for not being more composed. He hoped Allura didn’t go back to Keith and Shiro and tell them what an awkward nerd he was being.

*********

When Lance and Allura had left, Keith laid down on the couch in the living room and started reading a book about the disappearance of children. He liked that sort of stuff; unsolved mysteries, cryptoids, and conspiracy theories. It was all so fascinating to him. It would be a lie if he said that when he was younger he would go out and search for bigfoot or the mothman. It was something he used to like doing. There was a part of him that still wanted to go, but as an adult that looked a little silly. Absorbed in his book he didn’t even hear Shiro approach him until the older man was standing in front of him, beaming down. Keith put his book on his chest and looked up, meeting Shiro’s gaze.

“Yeah?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. Shiro had this cheesey grin on his face and Keith had a feeling he knew what his brother was about to say.

“I see those Adventure Buddies are going well.” His tone was high and Keith sighed back at him.

“We’ve only met up one time, don’t get too invested in it working out.”

“But are _you_ having fun?” Shiro’s tone became stern and Keith hated when it did. Slightly annoyed from being interrupted from his book he raised his hands up defensively.

  
“Yeah, _I guess_!” He then put his arms down and crossed them. “Is that what you want to hear?” Shiro’s gaze softened and he nodded.

“It’s good to see you hang out with someone. I’m glad Lance came to dinner, invite him over again, he’s a good guy.”

“Allura invited him, not me.” He looked away from Shiro for a moment. “Besides he probably would have more fun with you two than me.” Keith knew that what he said was going to receive a typical dad response, so the less he had to look at Shiro during it, the better.

“Keith...” There it was. Shiro had transformed from brother to dad in a matter of seconds. “…I know it’s hard to make friends, but I think Lance likes being around you. He is your friend after all.” Keith furrowed his eyebrows at the statement. _Friends._ Keith wouldn’t consider Lance and him friends. Sure, at the bowling alley they had a few good laughs, and dinner it wasn’t incredibly torturous, but the fact remained that Lance had this stupid rivalry thing stuck in his head, and he had originally been rude because of it. He never let Keith finish what he was saying, hence the misunderstanding about Allura.

“Lance isn’t my friend.” Keith finally said. This took Shiro a little by surprised and he slightly frowned.

“Well maybe he can be if you just give him a chance.” Keith had had enough with this and started to get upset.

“Look Shiro, he’s the one who always has something to say about my hair and-“

“This is about your hair?” Shiro asked, blinking.

“No! It’s just! He is- agh forget it!” Keith stood up, grabbing his book and turning away from Shiro to head down the stairs in the living room that led to Keith’s basement bedroom. He heard Shiro calling out his name, but he chose to ignore it. He didn’t get why this Lance thing was such a big deal to him, but then a thought crossed his mind and he knew exactly why Shiro was making a deal about it.

Prior to Lance coming to Keith’s house, Keith had made arrangements to meet up with someone on Craigslist about buying a used motorcycle during the dinner time. He had been saving up for one for awhile and finally found one that he really liked. The man selling it said he had a lot of offers so if Keith didn’t go look at it that night; he most likely wouldn’t get it. He was excited to go see it and Shiro knew that, so seeing Keith blow off possibly buying his prospective motorcycle to have dinner with Lance was huge. Well, it wasn’t that huge really. The reason that the boy did not go was because he didn’t want to be completely rude. Lance had practically been forced into his house to eat with them, so it didn’t feel right to ditch him and leave him to third-wheel it. There would be other bikes to look at so it didn’t really bother him, but Keith never self-sacrificed so he supposed how it seemed odd to Shiro.

Once in his room, Keith laid back down on his bed to finish his book, before falling asleep and having the weirdest dream involving Lance.

 

 

Sunday approached quickly and the group of four was currently standing in line to buy tickets. They decided to go in the evening, so it wasn’t as hot. Even in line Keith could smell the stench of farm animals. He scrunched up his nose and wished that had just gone to a normal arcade. The line in front of them was fairly long and Lance spent the whole time looking at himself in his face-fronting camera on his cell-phone, which started to get annoying. How could one person be that vain?

“Why do you keep doing that? Your face  hasn’t changed within the few seconds that pass before you look at yourself again.” Lance scoffed and turned to Keith.

“Listen, the love of my life could be here, and I don’t want to disappoint.” Keith crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. Lance was so romance-crazy, but then he wondered about the type of person that Lance would be attracted to. There was Allura, who was way out of his league anyways, but she seemed to attract most men because she was just so beautiful. Would Lance like someone who was like him? Loud, sarcastic, and goofy? Or someone quieter and more reserved? Keith couldn’t imagine someone more reserved liking Lance, and Keith cringed at the thought of two Lances together. Maybe Lance just took anyone he could get. Although amusing, Keith decided to stop thinking about Lance’s love life because it made part of him feel weird and he didn’t like it.

“I feel like your standards are pretty low if you’re hoping to find someone here.” Keith replied, popping his neck. Lance raised his eyes, amusement filling them.

“Don’t judge me for looking for love, and besides who’s going to date you with that?” Lance gestured to Keith’s hair. “You have a really bad mullet, no bueno for the ladies.”

“I’m not too worried about what the ladies think.” Keith replied, “And enough with my hair already.” 

“Oh so you think you’re such a catch, you don’t have to worry about impressing the ladies?”

“No.” Keith said sternly with a scowl on his face. Lance stared at him as if he was trying to figure something out.

“You guys are getting loud again, and the line is moving so, can you two like stop for 30 seconds.”  Hunk spoke up. Keith and Lance tore their eyes away from each other and saw they had created a big gap in the line. The two mutter apologetically and moved forward.

Once they bought their tickets and entered the fair, it met the standards that Keith had set for it. To the right of the entrance were a few buildings that from the sound and smell of it, had animals inside. The reek of animals and their droppings almost made Keith turn around and wait in Hunk’s car until the end of the night. Both Hunk and Lance seemed excited while Pidge and Keith exchanged unsure glances. He could tell she wanted to be there about as much as he did. Lance had to practically drag Keith and Pidge into the animal building. The stench increased as they walked in and Keith lifted his shirt to his nose and crinkled his nose.

The building was broken off into two sections; livestock and small animals. There were birds at the front where the group had entered. They were all in pens, some smaller than the others, but all big enough for the animals to move around well in. Keith had never seen so many different types of birds in one area. There were parrots, smaller birds like parakeets, hens, roosters, ducks, turkey, and geese. The hens and roosters were the loudest, clucking and boking and Keith wasn’t particularly too interested in them so he quickly made his way through that section. He stopped for a moment to admire the ducks and ducklings, but quickly became bored with the rest of the birds. The other small animals were rabbits. There were some as large as an adult cat, some with really long and floppy ears, some with long fur and also some very small ones. All of then were in cages placed up on stands.

The one little rabbit that caught Keith’s attention was a small entirely white one with black fur around its eyes. He poked his finger through the opening in the cage, his pointer just barely able to reach it. The fur was soft and he moved his finger gently back and forth against it. The rabbit didn’t seem to mind and a small smile crept across Keith’s face. Unfortunately that smile disappeared quickly once an annoyingly familiar voice spoke out.

“So very typical that the one animal you like is the little emo bunny.” Keith turned his expression into a full on frown and he pulled his hand away from the cage, bringing it up and crossing his arms. Lance was standing next to him with his hands on his hips, looking smug. “Hey maybe you two can talk about what shade of black you think is the darkest.”

The rabbit received one more quick glance from Keith, before he turned away from it and Lance and made his way to the end of the building where the livestock were held.

“Keeeiitth.” He heard Lance whine, but he didn’t acknowledge it. Lance was getting in some good jabs, and Keith felt like he needed to step up his game. He looked around, hoping to spot something that would give him ammunition to tease Lance. Maybe he couldn’t think of anything because the stench was killing his brain cells. There was another exit and entrance point at the other end of the building where the livestock was held, and to gain some freedom, Keith walked out. The setting sun hit his face and he soaked in the warmth when he heard a low sound. Turning towards it he saw a very large black and white cow that people could pose with. It was also in a pen, but the back drop was colorful to attract children to it. Smirking Keith stepped back into the building and spotted Lance standing next to Pidge, who was playing on her phone over by the long –haired rabbits. Keith cleared his throat and in the best earnest tone he could convey he called out to Lance. The tall boy perked up at Keith’s voice.

“Lance. There’s a really pretty girl over here. I think she might be a good fit for you!” He hoped his voice sounded believable. A long smile crawled across Lance’s face.

“Keith, buddy, don’t let her leave!” He bounced over to Keith, excitement obviously rushing through his body. Keith had never met anyone who got so excited about a girl before in his life, but it was something about Lance that made it easy for him to tease about. Once Lance got to Keith he stepped outside with him and he looked around frantically.

“Where is she?” He asked and Keith pointed to the large cow.

“Right there.” Lance’s excitement quickly melted away and for a second he looked hurt.

“Oh ha ha. Good one Keith.” Lance furrowed his eyebrows and Keith smiled, which must have taken Lance by surprise because he quickly turned away.

Keith took a step closer to the cow and read the name that was engraved on the stand in front of the pen.

“Kaltenecker.” He looked back at Lance. “Lance and Kaltenecker McClain. The name just rolls of the tongue, don’t you think?” Lance was rolling his eyes, but his mouth twitched a little. Soon enough Pidge and Hunk exited the animal building.

“Can we do something else? This animal stink is giving me a headache.” Pidge said with Kieht nodding his head in agreement.

“Let’s go ride rides!” Lance exclaimed. Hunk was the only one who cheered when he said that. After being met with an impartial look from Keith and Pidge, he frowned.

“Come on. We came here to have fun together. Don’t be a buzz kill, you guys.”

“Lance, I don’t ride rides.” Keith said and Pidge nodded.

“Me either. The engineering on those things is pretty bad, so I’ll take my chances with eating the food here instead.” A high-pitched groan came from Lance.

“Fine! Hunk and I will ride the rides, and Keith and Pidge can go do whatever party poopers do!”

“Sounds good.” Keith replied, ignoring the salty tone in Lance’s voice.

The group broke up into two, and Pidge and Keith made their way to the shopping booths were, while Lance and Hunk went the opposite way to the carnival side of the fair. Honestly Keith felt a little bad for wanting to split up, but he really didn’t want to ride rides. Nothing worse than spending too much money for rides that last about 30 seconds. Still though, part of him wished that Lance and Hunk were still with them.

Keith and Pidge enjoyed themselves. They browsed the shopping booths, watched a pig race, and checked out an art gallery. The sun had completely set, and soon the things they were interested in started shutting down.

Out of boredom the two ended up wandering towards the carnival. It was brightly lit and was by far the most crowded part of the fair. Keith felt a little overwhelmed and wanted to leave. Grabbing Pidge’s shirt, he started out of the area when a loud person shouted at him. Keith turned to see a short man with a long mustache waving to him. The man was dressed how all the other carnies were.. Khaki pants with a blue collared shirt.

“You! With the red shirt! Come play a game of darts! If you hit two balloons you get a small prize!” Keith awkwardly waved the man off and was intent on ignoring him, but he said something that riled him up.

“Oh no, its okay, I understand, a pretty boy like yourself wouldn’t do very good at this.” Keith hated when people questioned his ability and this man did not just call him a pretty boy. It was one of the reasons Lance drove him insane. “Maybe your girlfriend there can win you something instead!” Clenching his fists, Keith turned back and strutted over to the carnie with Pidge trying to pull him back.

“Keith ignore him!”

“Oh! So you do want to take a gander at it?” The carnie smiled mischievously and Keith nodded. “It’ll be 4 coins.” That made Keith raise his eyebrows quizzically and he shot a glance down to Pidge and she shrugged.

“What is that?” Keith finally asked. The carnie had been holding an ipad in his hands with a credit card slider attached to it.

“There are stations where you put money in and get coins in exchange.”  The carnie motioned over to one that wasn’t far from where they were.

Keith loaded some money onto it and Pidge let out a sigh. The coins clinked as they fell out.

“Keith, are you really going to waste your money on these stupid games?”

“Yes.” He replied, grabbing the coins and shoving them into his pocket. “That guy thinks he can mock me? Oh he’s going to wish he hadn’t.”

“You do realize that’s how they get people to play right? You just fell into his trap.” Keith ignored Pidge. He knew that, but his pride was now on the line.

 

They were back at the dart stand, and Keith purchased a game. He was given three darts to throw at the balloons and pop them. He threw the first one and it hit and popped. Silently, he praised himself, and picked up the second dart and threw it. The balloon popped and he quickly threw the third on, popping another balloon. A smile curved on his face and he turned to the carnie.

“Guess this pretty boy can play well after all.” The carnie continued smiling and nodded.

“You’re right, but can you hit five in a row? That’s the next level of this game!” Keith scowled and handed him the coins, buying another game. After being able to hit all five of the balloons, Keith was offered another game of ten, which he took, despite Pidge’s groaning to leave. Unsurprisingly, Keith hit all of the balloons again, and he wanted the carnie to look shocked, but instead the stupid grin on his face was still there. His winnings gave him a small teddy bear, a large smiley emoji pillow, and a large stuffed animal dog. He carried them around as trophies, and soon carnies all around were calling for him to play their games. The boy accepted each game, and while he was playing, he couldn’t help but wish Lance was there to see how well he was doing. After bowling, Keith needed something to show up Lance to, and he had a feeling this would be it. Some time had passed and Keith was getting more coins. He covered in a mass of prizes that he won throughout the night. He pulled out his wallet and realized there was no more money. Reality struck him when he realized how much cash he had spent. Looking at all the prizes he won made him grit his teeth in annoyance directed towards himself. Pidge gave him an arched eye-brow and a look of disappointment.

“Please tell me you didn’t just spend all you money on these stupid games.” Keith slapped his hand to his face in frustration. Okay, so he may have gone overboard on the games, but they carnies were so antagonizing and convincing, which Keith understood now was their sole job.

“I did.” Keith replied shamefully. Pidge shook her head and pulled out her phone for the umpteenth time that day.

“I’ll call Hunk to see if they’re ready to leave.” Pidge raised the phone up to her ears as it rang out. After a moment she paused and took the phone away, and blinked at a black screen. “It died.” She turned to Keith and reached her hand out.

“Let me use your phone.” She said. Keith frowned at her.

“I didn’t bring it.”

“You…? Why?!” Pidge had raised her voice in a way that Keith hadn’t yet heard and he honestly didn’t appreciate it.

“Because I didn’t want to lose it!”

Pidge was now gritting her teeth and she looked like she wanted to throw some punches at Keith.

“Well how else are we going to reach them?” Keith shrugged, not feeling that the situation was very urgent.

“Let’s go look for them!” She ordered. “I cannot believe we lost our friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this may seem like a slow chapter, but it will matter later! 
> 
> Stay tune for next time, where we see what Lance and Hunk were up to!


	6. Chapter 6

Lance and Hunk ended up buying the wrist bands that gave access to as every ride in one day. He felt that they had rode almost every ride twice and if he could, he would do it again. Unfortunately, although Hunk loved carnival rides, he had the stomach of an infant. Lance was standing outside a bathroom while Hunk threw his guts out in a toilet. It was getting late, but Lance loved the fair and there were so many things he wanted to go do. He lightly tapped his pinky against his thigh and let out a deep sigh. He felt for Hunk, he really did, but there was no way he could just stand there and wait for him to finish puking his guts out. From the echoes in the bathroom, it didn’t seem like he was going to stop soon.

“Hey Hunk, are you alright?” He asked, popping his head into the dark room.

“Yeah, just give me a-“ more puking noises and Lance was flinching from the sound and suck out his tongue in disgust.

“Hunk, buddy, do you mind if I go buy some funnel cake? Do you want something? Like uh, a Sprite?”

“I don’t think a Sprite will stay down. Just go, you know where I’ll be.” The voice Hunk made was miserable and almost enough for Lance to stay with him, but then he remembered that this happened every year they come to the fair.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a moment. Hang in there.” The Cuban boy stepped around the bathroom and made his way to the food stand. A smile crept on his face as he people-watched. In front of him was a young teenage couple holding hands, smiling at each other. To his left there was a group of friends sitting at a bench chatting and laughing. He turned his head to the right to where there was a basketball game. The player had to make the balls into the nearly impossible and rigged hoops. There was a fond look on his face as he watched a young girl attempting to throw the ball and coming close, but missing. As he was watching, someone else caught his attention. Standing next to the little girl was his favorite mullet-haired boy throwing basketballs with an enormous amount of determination. Pidge sat off to the side on her phone, and Lance figured this would be a great opportunity to break Keith’s concentration, and maybe even challenge him to a couple of games. Lance was amazing at carnival games and by the looks of it Keith wasn’t too shabby either. There were a lot of prizes stacked next to him, and it was amusing to see Keith take a stupid carnival game so seriously. Stepping out of line, Lance started to make his way to his friends when a familiar head of blonde hair stopped him. Right in his line of vision was a tall girl with platinum blonde hair pulled into two long braids, and she was staring at him. A small smile was forced and sent in her direction as he made eye-contact with her.

“Lance!” She called out. Her voice was sweet and suddenly Lance felt like he had a spider web in his throat.

“Oh, heyyy Nyma.” He said in his most nonchalant voice. Nyma smiled and wrapped Lance in a hug, causing him to tense up. It was an awkward exchange but Nyma ignored it. Upon release, Lance stepped aside to create some distance between the two.

“How are you? What are you up to? Alone?” She asked, quickly and bubbly.

“Me? What? No way! I’m here with Hunk!” Nyma glanced over Lance and appeared to be searching for the big guy. “But he’s throwing up in the bathroom, and I’m just getting funnel cake, when I saw my other friends and I was going to go to see them”, Lance quickly glanced over to where Keith and Pidge were, hoping they would see him and save him from this situation. Unluckily for him, by the time he looked back they were gone. Lance started rubbing his fingers against his palms, barely scraping them with his nails, and feeling a little nervous, “But then you showed up, and welp here you are!” His voice got a little high-pitched at the end of his sentence. Nyma was quick to pick up on this and she frowned. One of her hands reached across her body to cling onto the opposite arm.

“Look, Lance. I know we broke up, and how it ended wasn’t good, but I really do miss you.” She looked down with a sad expression on her face. Great, now there was a spider web and a frog in his throat. Nyma had broken up with him a few months ago, after finding another boyfriend. Lance was convinced she was cheating on him but he never had proof. It was safe to say it made Lance upset, and up until now he had gone out of his way to avoid her because her presence made him go stupid, just like this moment. He made a series of sputtering noises and awkward hand gestures before finally finding his voice.

“I just- what? Miss me? Why- I can’t-“ Nyma interrupted him by putting a finger in front of his mouth. Her finger was nearly touching his lips and he felt a little warm across his face.

“Do you want to ride a ride with me?” She asked, pointing to the Ferris wheel that loomed above them. Lance’s eyes widened because what was happening? Did Nyma want to get back together? Why would she ask him on the Ferris wheel? Didn’t she know that the Ferris wheel is the most romantic ride that exists? So much was going through his head all he could do was nod. She smiled and grabbed his wrist dragging him towards the giant ride. What was he doing? Nyma broke his heart and here was letting her pull him around. What would happen in the Ferris wheel? Would they kiss? Get back together? Silently he told his mind to shut up, but he couldn’t stop his heart from racing. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the racing heart that he wanted. This racing heart was filled with dread as he relived the break up and pain of the past _. What is happening?_ He kept asking himself.

He got his answer soon enough. Once Nyma pulled him into the line, he noticed that she was cutting people.

“Uh Nyma, this isn’t proper fair etiquette.” All she did in response was smile, and the warmth filled his cheeks once again. A hand in the near-distance raised and Nyma followed it. Oh, so there were people saving them spots. At least now he wouldn’t have to be alone with Nyma. Only, once he saw who waved them down, Lance almost wished he was alone with her. Rolo, a tall man wearing a beanie, smiled as he saw Nyma. Rolo was the guy Nyma broke up with Lance with for. He guessed it made sense that they were still together. It was silly to think Nyma would want to get back together with Lance, and Lance wasn’t even sure if he wanted that, but the sight of Rolo drove him into a fit of anger. The audacity Nyma had to bring Lance, her ex, to accompany her and her new boyfriend on the most romantic ride ever. Did she seriously have no consideration, or was she just that cruel. Lance ripped his wrist away from Nyma and she turned around and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

He didn’t know if it was an act of if she was really confused, but Lance was no longer in the mood for her. Without saying anything to her, he turned away and strutted in the opposite direction, not acknowledging her when she shouted his name.

 

Lance was fuming. He basically stomped his entire way back to the bathroom. He was done for the night. The lights and laughter of people melted away and he wanted to go home.

“Hunk?” He called into the bathroom.

“Yeah?” A weak response.

“Are you readying to go home?”

“Yes please. Just give me a few moments to recuperate.” Hunk really needed to stop riding carnival rides if he was going to get so sick. No one else ever wanted to do it with Lance, so Hunk always rode them with him even if he almost always ended up sick afterwards. He was appreciative of him, but right now wished he could tell him that he ran into Nyma. Lance shook his head, and stepped out of the bathroom and back outside. After a long sigh, Lance pulled out his phone from his back pocket, clicking the middle home button and watching it light up.

Tapping away on it, Lance called Keith first. It rang and rang until it finally went to voicemail. Without realizing it, he was tapping his foot on the ground in agitation. He tried to call it again and the same thing happened. Cursing Keith under his breath, he called Pidge, but hers went straight to voicemail. He groaned and angrily kicked the bathroom wall, before turning and sliding down it, and sitting on the asphalt. The night was ruined and he just wanted to leave. A girl like Nyma shouldn’t have the power to ruin his day, but she did and Lance hated it. Hated himself for letting her get under his skin when she was probably just trying to be nice. It didn’t matter if she was being nice though, it was rude and if she couldn’t see then she wasn’t worth his time. He brought his knees up to his face, wrapping his arms around them and burying his face. Not only was he upset with Nyma but Keith and Pidge weren’t answering their phones. Keith probably didn’t answer because he hated him, and Pidge’s phone most likely died. There was a part of him that knew he should probably go look for them, but the other part just wanted to sit where he was.

A few moments passed, and at this point all the background noises blurred together. Lance was deep in thought when a small and soft weight landed on top of his head. He raised his head and realized it was a hat, and the person who dropped it was Keith. His face was his usual scowl, but this time there was something off about it. Maybe it was the slight wrinkle he saw on Keith’s eyes, as if he was trying not to smile, but it was dark, so Lance could have been imagining it. Lance grabbed the hat and pulled it off to see it. There was a half expectancy that it would be a penis hat, but it wasn’t. It was a light blue hat with the face of a shark. The teeth were at the bottom hems, and the tail fin was the top of the hat. He blinked at the hat and then looked back up at Keith.

“How did you know I like sharks?” There was a moment of confusion for Keith, and he shrugged.

“I didn’t. It was just one of the prizes I won.”

 Behind him was a wagon full of an unnecessary number of prizes and the mere sight of it made Lance break out into a chuckle.

“Kogane, what the hell?”

“Don’t what the hell me!” Keith threw his hands in the air defensively, “I’m good at carnival games!” This made Lance laugh even harder.

“Keith, I’ve once gotten so many prizes, I needed two wagons. I am not impressed.” Keith gaped and crossed his arms, nearly pouting.

“Oh yeah, why don’t you prove it?” Keith edged on.

“Oh I will.” Lance returned, but it was without fire, and he quickly sat back defeated. Usually Lance would keep arguing with Keith until he lost his cool, but right now he was tired and wanted nothing more than to go home and curl into his bed. Keith must have noticed his exhaustion, because he changed the topic.

“Well it’s too late now. Guess we’ll just have to race to see who can make it back to Hunk’s car the quickest”. Lance shot him a smile, perking up again.

“Oh you’re on, but just to let you know, I swim, and everyone knows swimming is the super sport of endurance and speed.” Keith snorted, but there was a hint of humor to it. There was a small pause between the two as they looked at each other. Lance cleared his throat and tried to think of something to say. It wasn’t often Lance and Keith were alone together and not talking.

“Where is Hunk, by the way?” It was Keith who spoke first.

“He’s been throwing up in the bathroom for a while now. He’ll probably be woozy still, so I’ll drive us home.” Keith raised an eyebrow and nodded slightly. “What about Pidge?”

“She had to use the bathroom. Which is how we found you.” Lance nodded, and there was a part of him that wanted to give Keith crap for not answering his phone, but he decided he wasn’t in the mood to agitate Keith. It was weird, but he kind of liked seeing Keith have an actual conversation with him without the taste of annoyance in his voice.

As Lance unwrapped his arms from his legs to stand up a movement from Keith caught his attention. Keith was holding a hand out for him. Something like that should definitely not have made Lance’s insides squirm, but they did and Lance had no idea why. He was offering a hand to help him up, not confessing his undying love for him. The decision was made that he felt that way was because Keith doing something semi-nice to Lance of all people was so ridiculous that it confused his brain and that was it.

After a small hesitation, Lance grabbed Keith’s outstretched hand and Keith pulled him up. At the touch of hands Lance’s face went warm. _Stop it, stupid brain._

Right after Keith pulled Lance to his feet, he turned away from Lance and crossed his arms. That posture was more Keith-like and any warm or squirmy feeling was gone.

Pidge and Hunk came out of the bathroom around the same time and the four agreed they were ready to leave. Hunk was looking a little rough around the edges and as Lance had predicted, his best friend asked him to drive home.

“So what are we going to do about that?” Pidge asked, pointing to Keith’s cart of prizes. The group stared at it.

“Uh, I don’t think those will all fit in my car.” Hunk said. He placed his thumb on his chin as if he was trying to figure out a way to make everything and everyone fit. Lance walked over to the cart and picked up the handle.

“I have an idea.” He winked at everyone, and started walking away. Everyone looked at each other with confusion, all shrugging.

“Maybe he’s keeping them.” Hunk said. Lance knew exactly what he was doing, he just had to find the perfect person. He looked around, determination hardening his expression into something serious. All his friends awkwardly followed behind him as he wandered around the fair grounds. Finally, he saw them. The perfect person was a young girl, maybe six or seven, trying to play the carnival games, but failing miserably. He walked up to her and smiled. The girl’s mother was next to her and noticed Lance right away. She gave him an odd look, but he just waved it off and stayed focused on the girl.

“If I may interrupt, but my mullet-wearing friend over there won all these prizes, but we don’t have any room in the car for them, can I impose on you to take them off our hands?” Both his voice and eyes were soft, and once the mother saw Keith, Pidge, and Hunk behind Lance and realized he wasn’t just some weirdo, she smiled as well. The little girl gleamed when she saw how many prizes there were in the cart.

“Can I?” She asked, looking at Lance and her mother. The mother chuckled and nodded slightly.

“Well, we haven’t won anything all night.” Her attention turned back to Lance and her eyebrows furrowed a bit. “Are you sure it’s alright?”  Lance nodded, and handed the handle to the little girl.

“All her’s. Besides, I get to keep this sweet shark hat.” He pointed to the hat, still placed on his head. A wide smile spread across her face and she wrapped her arms around Lance’s neck.

“Thank you!” She released, and quickly ran behind him to see what all the prizes were. She gawked and gleamed, showing her mom each item she thought was cool. The one prize he didn't give was the shark hat. He liked it, and put it back on his head. Lance waved goodbye and came back to his group of friends.

“Problem solved.” He said, dusting his hands. For a moment, Keith was making an adorable face, one that was gentle, yet impressed. It was only there for a second before disappearing behind his mask of scowls.

“Are we gonna race to the car or what, Mullet? I’m aching to beat you today.” Keith rolled his eyes, and chuckled before standing very still. Lance also went still, analyzing Keith and his body movements. Lance saw part of the shorter boy’s leg twitch and he took that as cue to run. They both took off, weaving their way through groups of people. Lance was having a hard time, keeping up with Keith and he couldn’t imagine how much he runs for him to be that fast and agile. Even after they had ran through most of the fair, Keith looked like he was nowhere close to being out of breath, but Lance was not a quitter. He kept up with Keith, despite his heart feeling like it was going to explode. They zoomed out of the fairgrounds and into the parking lot, quickly finding Hunk’s car. Keith’s hand touched the metal, followed very shortly by Lance’s. He smirked triumphantly.

“Aha. I win!” Keith shouted, his breath now heavy from the running.

“You only won because I was tired from all the rides.” Lance replied in between his own breaths.

“Mhmm.” Keith leaned against the car, and the smirk never left his face. Lance took a moment to appreciate the way his mouth curved up and how his eyes softened. It was an extreme rarity that Keith smiled at all, but it was even more rare to see him look so content. The two stood in comfortable silence and Lance kept slipping short glances at Keith, who either didn’t noticed or didn’t care.

After a while, Hunk and Pidge caught up with the two and they got in the car with Lance in the driver’s seat. While the group rode home, Lance kept peering at Keith again, hoping to catch him looking as content as he did earlier. Unfortunately, there was no such luck.

Lance dropped off Keith and Pidge at their homes and was on his way back to Hunk’s and his apartment.

“I’m glad you and Keith are finally getting along.” Hunk said. Lance made a spitting out with his lips pursed together.

“What do you mean?” He asked, as if he didn’t know already. Hunk made a low chuckle and slowly shook his head.

“All I’m saying is that you seemed to have fun with him today.”

“We hung out for like five minutes the whole day. That was just about all the Keith I could handle for the day.” Lance lied. Hunk snorted and placed his hand on Lance’s head.

“Oh yes, then explain why you’re still wearing this hat.” There was a blush creeping on Lance’s face and he was glad it was too dark to see.

“I like sharks, you know that!” Lance’s voice got higher as his finished his sentence. That wasn’t a lie. Sharks were Lance’s favorite animal, and so what if he just happened to like it because Keith also gave it to him.

“Whatever you say, buddy.” Hunk replied with a light tone.

Lance pouted, and again he was glad the darkness of the night masked it. They drove a few moments in silence when Lance finally remembered the thing he wanted to talk to Hunk about.

“I saw Nyma.” He said and Hunk snapped his head to Lance.

“What? What happened? Did she talk to you?” He asked, his voice full of interested. Lance nodded and his grip on the steering wheel tightened a bit.

“Yeah. She wanted to hang out and ride rides together, and when we got to one, Rolo was in line. She wanted me to hang out with her and the boy she left me for.” There was almost a spat at the end of his sentence, and he suddenly was getting angry again.

“What? Dude that’s messed up…” Hunk trailed off. There was a pause before Hunk said something again.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”  Lance wondered why too. Normally he would tell Hunk as soon as he was done puking, but he had completely forgotten about the exchange and he was searching for the answer why. His grip on the steering wheel loosened and he relaxed a bit when the reason why entered his mind. He sat with it for a moment and then refused to acknowledge it for too long, pushing it down.

“Um, I guess I just forgot.” Again, not a lie. He did forget, but it wasn’t for no reason. Hunk nodded and let out a sigh.

“I’m glad you didn’t torment yourself to riding rides with her and her boyfriends. The old Lance might have done that. It seems like you’re finally over her.”

Lance nodded in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might not update this very frequently as school has started up again and I'm really trying to push through my last year of college. Also I am planning another fic that actually has a plot and story haha, but that probably won't be out for awhile because I've been super busy and haven't had too much time to plan it. I don't want to abandon this bc I have fun writing it and those few who read it might like it too, so yeah.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I was supposed to finish this chapter a week ago, and it was supposed to be much longer, but for some reason I had the hardest time writing this. Sorry if it's jumpy, again I struggled with this chapter, but I promise the next chapter will make up for it (hopefully)

It was 5am the day following the Fair. The sun was barely starting to rise, streaks of yellow and orange were illuminating below the dark blue sky. Keith was out for a morning run before his classes. It was earlier than when he normally ran and that was due to the fact that he could not get Lance out of his head. More so, he couldn’t get their interactions from the previous day out of his head. The two were able to finish the night without chewing each other’s heads off and he hated to admit it but he actually had a good time, despite the short time they spent together. When Keith saw Lance sitting alone by the bathroom he didn’t know what else to do other than drop that hat onto his head. Such an expression didn’t suit Lance, and he figured something must have happened. Part of him wanted to ask if everything was okay, but he wasn’t the type to pry into someone else’s business. Besides, Lance’s whole attitude changed once Keith started talking to him, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was because Keith talked to him that he perked up, or if Lance was putting on a front so no one saw that he was clearly upset. The first option made Keith’s insides squirm. It wasn’t a feeling that he necessarily hated but he wasn’t sure why it was there, but it wasn’t only when he thought of the idea of him raising Lance’s spirits; the feeling was there when he remembered Lance sneaking glances at him after they had raced to car. They two weren’t really friends, in fact Lance made it his goal to show Keith how much he disliked him. Keith wanted to get to know him better, but he didn’t know how because he wasn’t used to making friends, he was worried that Lance wouldn’t reciprocate, and Keith really wasn’t ready for rejection so soon after barely making friends. The last reason was enough to make Keith fear his squirmy feelings. He knew what they meant, but letting them grow could be dangerous, especially with a person like Lance. The run was helping him clear his head and think straight. He figured that the best option would be to ignore his feelings, and hopefully they’d go away.

After returning home and showering, Keith found he still had some time to get ready, so instead of using that time wisely, he started a new documentary about cults in the U.S and he was about halfway through when his phone buzzed. The banner at the top of the screen indicated a text message from Lance. There was a moment when he thought he wasn’t the person the message was meant for because Lance had never texted him individually. Not only that, but it was early in the morning and Keith had assumed Lance was someone who stayed in bed until noon. He swiped the banner and the messages app popped. He started reading what Lance sent him.

Lance: _Hey mullet, last Tuesday allura said i could come over for the family dinner thing whenever i wanted so i was just making sure it was ok if i came tomorrow. Shiro and allura are a lot of fun._

First, Keith rolled his eyes at ‘mullet’ and then he let out a deep sigh. The last sentence indicated that Lance was probably just interested in hanging out with Allura and Shiro, which was fine because they were definitely a lot more fun than Keith was, but there was a tiny part of Keith that wished he wanted to hang out with him instead. He quickly reminded himself that he was trying to ignore the feelings and scolded himself. Since Lance just wanted to hang out with Allura and Shiro, it wouldn’t matter if Keith was there. He had arranged another meeting to buy a motorcycle on craigslist and this time he was not going to cancel it for Lance.

He tapped away on his phone in response,

Keith: _Sounds good._

 

 

After his classes let out Keith headed downtown to where his job was located. He worked at a Physical Therapy Practice as a part-time assistant. He enjoyed it, the hours were nice, and since he really enjoyed the work it didn’t feel too much like a job. Before he stepped into the building, his phone buzzed again. He reached down for it and glanced at it, expecting it to be from Shiro, telling him to pick up eggs or something. It wasn’t, it was the ‘Voltron’ group message. He pulled the phone completely out of his pocket to read it.

Hunk: _Pidge and Keith, you should come with us to Allura’s yoga class on Wednesday at 5. Lance and I always go but we thought we should invite you both!_

Pidge: _Sure, I don’t have anything else going on, but I have to warn you I’m not the flexible type._

Hunk: _Don’t worry! It’ll be fun!_

Keith chewed a little of the bottom of his lip. He had never been a yoga person, besides it wasn’t Sunday, why were they hanging out?

Keith: _It’s not Sunday though._

Lance: _We’re all compadres now Keith, we don’t have to just hang out on Sundays. Come on, unless you’re too lame._

Keith rolled his eyes. It was becoming a habit any time Lance said something. There was no explainable reason why someone like Lance gave Keith warm feelings, and nope, he was ignoring those.

Keith: _Fine._

Pidge: _Speaking of Sunday, let’s decide something. I was thinking that Since Lance and Hunk picked something, that Keith could have a turn._

When he read the message he thought hard about what he wanted to do. There was one thing he really had been itching to do before the weather got too cold.

Keith: _Hiking Mt. Zarkon_

Mt. Zarkon was a witch-hat shaped mountain that basically mocked Keith anytime he drove past it on the interstate. For the past year, he had wanted to summit it, but the opportunity never rose up, until now.

Hunk: _Sounds good! Let’s plan on that!_

The raven-haired boy was happy and excited that he was able to pick what the group did. There was genuinely no issue in not picking what to do, but it felt nice to be included. His whole shift, he was excited about seeing the reactions of everyone when they hiked to the top and experienced how free and powerful it feels to be so high up. The excitement stayed with him until it was time for him to go to sleep.

………..

 

 

Allura had just arrived to the house and was chatting with Shiro in the living room when Keith came upstairs from his bedroom with his shoes and coat on. He passed the two and Shiro’s lips pursed while his eyebrows lowered in a look of confusion directed at his brother.

“You said Lance was coming over?” Shiro said, but his tone sounded more like a question. Keith nodded and grabbed his keys from a small brown bowl that was seated on a shelf by the front door.

“He is, but I have to be somewhere.” Keith’s tone was flat. Shiro quickly glanced at Allura and they both made disappointed looks before the older man stepped towards Keith a bit.

“Don’t you think it might be kind of rude be absent while your friend is here?” Keith shrugged nonchalantly and grabbed the door handle, opening it.

  
“Relax. He’s coming to hang out with you and Allura, not me. Besides I’m sure it won’t take long, I’m just seeing if this bike is worth buying.” Shiro now had his arms crossed and he didn’t look so convinced.

“Just try to be back before the night is over.” The statement sounded like a suggestion, but Keith knew it was an order.

“You have my word.” Keith said firmly. As much as he didn’t want to intrude, the last thing Keith would do is disappoint Shiro, so he’d show up towards the end of the night. He stepped out and made his way to his car.

_

  
Keith was standing next to the black and white motorcycle, inspecting it. It seemed to be in good condition, and although it wasn’t as nice as the first motorcycle he wanted, he was still interested in it. The man that was selling it kept talking about the bike and at some point Keith had tuned him out. He was perfectly capable of inspecting it and making a judgement by himself. He was looking at the tires when his phone started buzzing, indicating at call. He groaned internally, expecting it to be Shiro, telling him to hurry up. _I’m almost done, I’m sure Lance isn’t missing me that much._ The caller was not Shiro, and it wasn’t any of his friends. Time seemed to stop as he stared at the name lighting up his phone screen. “Dad”. Rage started creeping through his stomach and up to his throat, tightening it. He hadn’t spoken to his dad in a long time, and he had no intention of doing so anytime soon. The phone kept buzzing in his hand until it finally sent to call to voicemail, and a missed call notification popped up. He cleared his throat, and realized the man was still talking.

“….And it’s got great traction, I just replaced the tires.” His head snapped up at the man, and he nodded slightly, not thinking about the motorcycle anymore. The phone lit up again, indicating a voicemail. Keith had no idea why after so long his dad decided to call him. A small cough arose and he cleared his throat, trying to seem normal in front of the man.

“Yeah sounds good, man.” His voice shook a little, and the man arched an eyebrow.

“So, do we have a deal?” The man asked in a deep voice. There was a small pause as Keith tried to get his thoughts together. He had to keep reminding himself to think about the motorcycle and not his father. He was about to respond when his phone buzzed again, but this time it was a text message. He instinctively looked down and frowned when he saw a banner that displayed a long message. There was a bit of hesitation but he opened the message and a low growl grumbled in his throat as he immediately regretted his decision.

Dad: _Hey son, it’s been awhile. I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I’m in town and I would absolutely love to see you. Hope you will answer me soon, and we can leave the past behind us._

Keith shoved his phone back into his pocket, and clenched his fist. A full-on fit of anger was about to control him. The thought of buying the motorcycle vanished from his mind, and he turned around and walked away, ignoring the man’s shout. The audacity that his father had to be reaching out to him, and claiming that he wanted to meet up was ridiculous. And the fact he expected Keith to just forget what he had done was downright selfish. Once to his car, Keith pulled the driver door open harder than he should have. He sat down, still fuming, intending to go home and sulk in his room for awhile. At least that’s what he wished he could do. The image of Lance in his living room hanging out with Shiro and Allura came to his mind, and he didn’t really feel like hanging out with them or having to explain to them why he wanted to go to his room. He rested his head into his hands and let out a deep sigh. In theory, hearing from his father shouldn’t drive him to a complete rage, but he really hated him so much that it was hard to feel any other emotion when it involved him. Talking to Shiro would help calm him down, but he wouldn’t be able to without concerning Lance and Allura. An idea of where he could go and fume for a while popped into his mind. The engine started, and he drove away.

 

The top of the parking garage at the college was usually never used, especially in the evening. It was the perfect place to look over the town and be alone. Lights from the buildings below twinkled against the dark backdrop. The fresh air and night sky had a soothing effect on Keith and whenever he went up to the top, he could put things into perspective and think clearly. Often, when he was upset, he’d come up right as the sun was about to set and watch it, momentarily forgetting any petty problem that he had at the moment. Despite the calming atmosphere, Keith couldn’t stop being angry. He didn’t even listen to the voicemail because he knew it would just fuel the rage. His father did such a good job at leaving him alone when he was a younger, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to do it now. The raven-haired boy rested his arms on the ledge of the wall that bordered the top of the garage. He focused his gaze up at the stars, trying to get lost in the cosmos.

******

Lance was seated on Shiro’s couch, nervously tapping his foot. He felt like he was practically shaking the whole house with how much he was tapping. Shiro told him that Keith went out but was going to come back. If he had known that Keith wasn’t going to be there, he might have not came over. The truth was that Lance wanted to hang out with Keith. He wasn’t sure why, but there was a part of him that just wanted to be around him, even if they argued and teased each other. The night at the Fair made Lance want to see Keith more. It has almost made him wish he had ditched the rides and hung out with him instead. He wanted to get to know him more, and he hadn’t realized he wanted to until the night of the fair. That was all down the drain now, because it was already getting late and Keith still wasn’t at the house. A mixture of disappointment and frustration swelled inside of him. Keith was the one who told him it was good if he came over, but then again knowing Keith he probably misinterpreted the message somehow, or he hated Lance and didn’t want to spend time with him. There was that too. Lately he had been really rethinking their initial introduction because Lance had acted like a jerk and he wanted to make it up to him. He should have never acted that way towards him because now Keith probably hated him too. But they had a good time at the fair, right? They didn’t spend a lot of time together but he didn’t look like he hated Lance. His thoughts were interrupted by Shiro walking from the kitchen.

“I am really sorry that Keith never showed. He said he was going to and its unlike him to not keep his word.”  Lance waved off his words and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. He probably hates me so I guess it makes sense that he wouldn’t show. No big deal. I didn’t want to deal with his attitude all night anyways, but you and Allura are the best.”

Shiro frowned a bit and raised one eye-brow in a look of concern.

“Why would he hate you?” His tone reminded Lance of the way that his father would speak to him when he was about to give him a lecture.

“Well, when we first met, I was exactly…” Lance tried to think of the word, “….Civil, I guess.” His voiced had a hint of embarrassment, since he was confessing he was a jerk to Keith to his own brother. Shiro shook his head and a little smile appeared.

“I don’t think he hates you. If he did, I highly doubt he would have cancelled his meeting to buy that motorcycle last week.” Lance froze. _Wait what._

“He did what now?” Lance asked. Shiro titled his head a little bit.

“Oh, I guess he didn’t tell you. When you were here for dinner last week, he was supposed to go buy a motorcycle that he had been saving up to get, but he didn’t go because you were here.” Lance’s hands fell into his lap and he looked down, feeling a bit warm.

“Oh, that was… nice of him.” His voice squeaked a bit. Keith ditched something for him? That was unexpected; so Keith probably didn’t hate him after all.  There was a bit of relief inside of him, because it was one step closer to them being friends. If Keith stayed for him the first time, he wondered why he wouldn’t be there this time around. He wondered if something happened, or if he just got caught up with something else.

The evening went on and Shiro, Allura, and Lance had a good time. They ate dinner and watched a movie before Lance decided it was time that he headed out. He was putting on his coat and Shiro apologized to him once more for Keith not showing up.

“It’s okay Shiro, I’ll just make sure to give him a hard time tomorrow at yoga.” Allura lit up when he said that.

“You’re all going to come? How splendid! I can’t wait to see you all there!” Lance nodded.

“Of course princess, your teachings are so amazing I just have to get everyone to go.” Allura smiled and gave him a hug.

“Goodbye Lance.”

Lance returned the smile and waved them goodbye, before making his exit out the door.

 

The next day passed by rather quickly and Lance was driving down a familiar tree-filled neighborhood. He had texted everyone to make sure they were still coming and everyone except for a certain mullet-having boy had replied yes. There was no way he was going to let him bail on yoga with everyone after not showing up to dinner the night before. He didn’t know his schedule but he had a feeling he was at home. Lance’s blue truck pulled up and parked in front of the brother’s drive-way. As suspected, Keith’s red car was parked there. He got out of the truck and made his way to the door, knocking in rhythmic beats. There was a silence for a few moments before Lance could hear movement from within the house. He knocked again, this time harder.

“Open the door, Keith!” He shouted, “I know you’re in there. You can’t hide from Lancey Lance!” He kept knocking until the door swung open and there in front of him was the shorter boy with his long hair messy and bags under his eyes. He looked like he had just woken up from a nap.

“What do you want, Lance?” Keith asked, annoyance flooding his voice. He face was shoved into a deep frown, and he was crossing his arms.

“Were you sleeping?” Lance asked. For some reason, Keith’s messy hair looked adorable and without thinking about it, he reached out and touched his head, placing his palm on it. Keith briefly looked up, confused at why he was doing that. He leaned his head to the left and swatted Lance’s hand away. He was obviously not in the playful mood, but Lance wasn’t going to let his attitude sway him.

“Maybe, what do you want?” He asked again.

“Yoga, bruh.” Lance said, looking down, and inspecting Keith’s attire. It was a gray t-shirt and red athletic shorts. “And look at that, you’re already dressed to go to.” He grabbed Keith’s left arm and attempted to pull him out of the door, but he didn’t budge.

“I’m not going, so let go.” Keith stepped back and started to close the door even though Lance’s hand was still firm around his arm. Instead of letting go, Lance moved forward and pushed the door back with his free arm. He was standing close to Keith now, hovering over him, and still gripping his arm. He swore he saw Keith’s face start to go red, but he turned away too quick for him to be certain. That, and he ripped his arm free from Lance and started walked away from him leaving Lance in his door way.

“Keith where are you going? You’re just gonna leave me here with your door wide open? I could steal something!” Keith ignored him and started down the stairs from the living room, and Lance grumbled, cautiously stepping into the house. He wasn’t sure if he should follow Keith or not and it felt weird going into someone else’s house uninvited, especially this one because all the blinds were drawn and it was unnecessarily dark for it being the day time. A deep breath was taken and Lance followed Keith, slowly closing the door behind him. There was a part of him that felt like a burglar, despite Keith hearing him step in. Lance turned to Keith’s direction, following him down the stairs to where he assumed his room was. Once down the stairs, Keith disappeared into the first room to the right, and Lance slowly followed him into it. He took a moment to examine the dark room. It was pretty plain. A full-sized bed tucked in the corner. A world map plastered above it, a small alien poster taped to his closet, and a picture hanging up of him and Shiro when they were younger in front of a desk. The desk was placed perpendicular to the bed and it was surprisingly messy with textbooks and papers littering it. Keith had plopped on his bed, lying on his stomach with one foot hanging off.

“So, about yoga. Let’s get some shoes on you and go.” Still no response from Keith. “Keith!” Lance said with assertion, hoping that would gain his attention. It did.

“What?” Keith mumbled. Keith was starting to act like a child and Lance was not in the mood for it, although it was an interesting sight to see the stoic Keith act like that.

“Yoga. Let’s go! C’mon chop chop, Allura and the others are waiting for us.”

“I’m tired, just let me sleep.” Keith muttered, before burying his head into his pillow. Lance narrowed his brows, determined to get this emo to get out of the house.

“It looks like you’ve been sleeping all day, yoga will brighten your spirit! Let’s go!” He reached down for Keith’s leg that was dangling off the side of the bed and grabbed his ankle, starting to tug. Keith let out a loud groan in protest, but Lance kept pulling. Keith was slowly being dragged off the bed, so he grabbed onto the side of the head board, resisting Lance’s pull.

“You’re going to disappoint everyone if you don’t go!” Lance shouted, taking a step forward and moving his hands onto Keith’s knee and calf, still pulling.

“It’s just yoga, let me go!”

“Come on, what would your parents think about you letting down your friends.” He said it lightly. It was meant to be a joke, maybe not a very funny joke, but a joke nonetheless. It either struck a nerve somewhere within Keith or he was tired of Lance fooling around. Either way, as soon as he had said it, Keith shifted and pumped back his free leg, landing a hard kick into Lance’s stomach.  The force was strong enough that it knocked the air out of him for a he let go of Keith and stumbled back a few steps before falling back onto his butt. He clenched his stomach and his breath returned, but he looked up to Keith, who was glaring at him.

“What the hell, Keith! I’m just trying to be your friend!”

“Well I don’t want you to be my friend!” Keith snarled. The Cuban boy flinched a little bit in fright, but quickly a flood of anger filled him. He couldn’t believe he let Shiro and everyone else convince him that Keith was actually a decent human being. All he was did was try to be friends, and to make it up to him for being such a jerk when they first met, but it was very apparent that Keith was not interested in caring about other people. Lance hopped to his feet, and refusing to say another word to him, he turned out of the room and raced up the stairs and out the door, slamming it shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, but I love drama. Next chapter will be less dramatic, kinda, but dramatic in a good wayish. Anyways, again sorry if this was jumpy. I was on the struggle bus for awhile, and I'm not too happy with the chapter but I'm glad it's out of the way. Good news: I landed an A on the first exam of my senior year in college, so there's an accomplishment.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go hiking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: panic attack

It had all been his fault. After the words had spilled out of him mouth he immediately regretted it. Saying that he didn’t want Lance to be his friend was the biggest lie he had ever told, but he was frustrated already, and as soon as Lance mentioned parents, he thought of his father and just snapped. He knew Lance didn’t deserve to be the target of his anger, he knew he was only trying to help and lighten the mood. He knew all of this, and yet still hadn’t said a word to him. He knew Lance deserved an apology, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. For some reason, Keith had a loss of words and just couldn’t figure out what to say. If he had been Lance, there was no way he would hear Keith out and listen to him. The anger in his voice was too harsh. The face he made after Keith yelled at him was devastating. It dropped into sadness and quickly turned to anger, and he stormed off without even saying anything. He wanted to shout out after Lance, fix it then and there, but he didn’t, and now their budding friendship was over.

 _Why do I do this?_ He thought to himself. The whole situation had been on his mind, but more so now that it was Sunday. No one knew about their spat and everyone was still meeting to go hiking, except for Pidge. Early that morning Keith and Shiro went to her house to drop off some stuff Shiro borrowed from Matt. Matt was laying on his bed with a high fever, so Pidge informed Keith that she was going skip the hike so she could take care of her ill brother. It was understandable, but there was a new sense of nervousness that flooded Keith. Would it be weird with just Hunk, Lance, and Keith? Would Lance even go? Keith thought about not going, and the biggest reason he decided to was because he really wanted to summit Mt.Zarkon. It was an all day hike and Sunday was the only free day he had. Another part of him really wanted to see Lance and finally apologize, even if it was too late.

Keith pulled into the gas station parking lot that the group decided to carpool at and he got out of his car and waited patiently. He was leaning against his door, and kept reminding himself to not make things weird, and to act normal.

“Try not to look like you’re avoiding Lance, just say hi. Maybe smile.” He muttered to himself as a reminder. Then a thought popped into his head. When would he be able to apologize? Doing it in front of Hunk would make it that much more awkward. Was waiting until he could get him alone on the hike better? There wasn’t much time for Keith to dwell on it because he Hunk’s familiar yellow car pull up in the parking spot next to Keith.  He took a deep breath in and hoped for the best. Lance opened the door and stepped out. He was wearing a pair of joggers, a gray sleeveless hoodie, and a blue baseball hat.  He reached back into the car for his backpack and Keith checked him out while he was turned away. Keith had to admit that Lance looked good, even if it was a bad time to think so considering their situation.

“When will Pidge be coming?” Lance asked turning back around but avoiding eye contact with Keith.

“She’s not. She’s taking care of Matt, because he’s sick.”  Lance’s eyes grew wide and he finally looked at Keith.

  
“What? Are you serious? Hunk isn’t coming either! And I’m stuck with _you_?” The tone at the end of his sentence stung Keith, but he quickly reminded himself that he deserved it.

“Hunk?” Was all Keith managed to say, looking at the big guy through the rolled down window of his car. Lance let out a large sigh, bringing his hand up to the bridge of his noise. Hunk waved and smiled.

“Hi Keith! And no, I can’t come I have a massive exam tomorrow. I’m real nervous about it so I need to spend today studying. You know, engineering!” He chuckled, and Keith gave him a small smile. The smile dropped into a frown when Lance spoke.

“No! I am not doing this with him. I’m going home!” Lance grabbed for the door and Hunk clicked a button to lock all the doors.”

“Hunk! You know I’m perfectly capable of climbing through this window!” As he said that, Hunk started rolling up the window.

“You’ll thank me later! Have fun!”

“Hunk! Buddy! Don’t do this!”  The window rolled completely up and Hunk shot the boys a huge grin before backing out and leaving. The two stood there in the parking lot, both a little confused as to what exactly just happened.  They both refused to look at each other and Keith couldn’t help but wish he just stayed home and forgot about the stupid mountain.

“Your shirt is stupid by the way.” The comment startled him and he turned back to Lance in confusion, then looking down at his shirt. It was a black t-shirt with a drawn UFO and the words saying ‘I believe’ beneath it.

“It was a birthday gift from Shiro.”Keith said, still looking at his shirt. Lance snorted, and Keith was still confused. Why was he talking to him? Maybe it was a weird power-play to insult his shirt? Keith wasn’t sure. He didn’t think his shirt was stupid at all. There was a few moment of silence between them before Lance groaned.

“I’m doing this for Hunk, not you!”

 “I didn’t think it was for me.” Keith said drier than he had intended.

“Good, now let’s go.” Lance walked around and got into the passenger seat.

Keith opened his door as well, the shock of the turn of events was now fading to dread. Now, there was no third person to use as a buffer for when the two inevitability started fighting.

 

 

It was around a 30 minute drive to get to the trailhead and a majority of it was spent in uncomfortable silence. The tension was heavy and Keith wanted nothing more than to escape it. He was driving up  the side of a smaller mountain when his grip tightened on the steering wheel. He was just trying to think of a way to verbalize his feelings.

 _Just say sorry. Just say it. Sorry Lance. That’s it. Say it. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry._ Lance must have noticed Keith’s death grip on the steering wheel because he shot him+ worried glance.

“Um, you’re not going to have a freak out and drive us off the cliff are you?”

“No!” Keith snapped back with a bit of edge to his voice. _Why did you say it like that? Just be normal. Just say sorry!_

“Lance…”Keith began, his voice barely choking out the other boy’s name. Lance looked over at him, a little unsettled. Keith swallowed and opened his mouth. He was going to apologize. This was this moment.

“…My shirt isn’t stupid.” Not an apology. Not what he wanted to say, but he chickened out. His gaze stayed focused on the road ahead, but he pursed his lips. Lance blinked at him, a little surprised.

“Uhh right, I’m sorry… Sorry that you and Shiro have such bad taste.” The boy chuckled a bit at his own joke, but then it ended almost as soon as it began. It was almost as if Lance had remembered that he was upset with Keith. The two rolled back into silence and Keith really wished they hadn’t.

Keith drove up to the dirt parking rearing the trailhead.  He got out of his car and stretched, taking in the warmth of the sun. The sky was clear and for a moment Keith forgot about his feud with Lance and tried to enjoy the weather .

“So how long is this again?” Lance asked, bending over and stretching out his legs.

“16 miles roundtrip. There’s a 4,000ft gain in elevation.” He said. Lance let out a huge gasp and gave a look of disbelief.

“I’m sorry. What? 16. As in 1 and 6. Keith that is too long!” Amusement flickered in Keith’s eyes, and he started towards the trailhead.

“What was that you said earlier? That you swam, which was the sport of endurance and speed?”

“Yeah when I’m not climbing a billion feet. This is gonna suck.” His pitch got higher as it usually did when he was worked up. Keith let out a small smile in adoration knowing Lance couldn’t see his face. Maybe hiking would bring them closer and he wouldn’t even have to apologize.

 

 

Hiking definitely did not bring them closer together. It was weird and quiet, other than Lance’s complaints every 10 minutes. They didn’t walk close to each other, in fact it seemed that Lance was purposely keeping his distance. Keith was leading up the trail with Lance lagging behind. They had been walking for about an hour and a half and they hadn’t yet taken a break. Keith was doing fine, and he was surprised that Lance was keeping up with him as well as he was.

“Keith, my legs are killing me, can we please stop before you kill me?”

“Yeah, let’s just make it over this hill, and we can stop.” This was obviously not the response that Lance wanted because he let out a loud and obnoxious groan. Lance wasn’t able to see but Keith rolled his eyes at the sound and kept walking. Keith made it to the top of the hill first. It diverged off to two paths and he started on the trail to the right, but paused, a particular sound catching his sound. He listened attentively and that’s when he recognized it. Falling water. It was coming from the left trail and he followed that instead.

“Hey, I think we’re supposed to be on this path instead.” Lance said, but was ignored. Keith heard a small mutter from him, but he was too interested in the other sound to care. They walked a few meters when Keith saw it. A large cascade of water descended down the rocky slope. Green foliage surrounded it, making it looks like something out of a dream. It was breath-taking. When Lance finally caught up with Keith, his jaw dropped, and he pushed past Keith slightly to get closer to the falls. He was able to walk right up next to it. He had a cheesiest smile that Keith had ever seen, and he had to bite his lip to hold back his own smile that was attempting to creep on his face.

“We’re resting here!” Lance proclaimed, finding a large rock next to the cascade and taking a seat. Keith also wanted to be near the cascade but didn’t want to invade any of Lance’s space so he sat a few feet away. He decided it was a good time to snack a little, so he unzipped his backpack and pulled out some grapes. The only sound between the two boys was the rushing water. It was slightly uncomfortable, and Keith would sneak glances at Lance, watching him eat his own snacks. At one point Lance caught Keith looking, and the raven-haired boy quickly snapped his head to face the ground. He fidgeted with the small purple fruit in between his fingers. The silence was awkward and Keith continued to stare hard at the ground. A small movement flashed by his peripherals and caught his attention. He looked towards the shrubbery where the movement came from, and strained his eyes, watching. A small brown chipmunk was eating something. Keith’s mouth twitched and he gently tossed the grape in the small rodent’s direction. It froze at first, making sure there was no danger, and then quickly noticed the fruit and grabbed it, shoving most of it into its mouth.

“Is that a chipmunk?” Lance’s voice caught Keith’s attention. He turned to the other boy and nodded. “What! I want to feed it too!” He craned his neck to see exactly where the chipmunk was located.

“You could if you weren’t sitting all the way over there.” Lance relaxed back down and crossed his arms comically.

“I can’t get up, I’ll scare it away.” Keith fought back the urge to chuckle and kept his neutral expression.

“Well, I guess you-“ Keith didn’t finish his thought because he heard Lance mutter something.

“Besides, I like the water.” His expression dropped into something softer, and he rose his hand and reached over to the cascade, feeling the mist from the water hitting the rocks. Keith gulped, and couldn’t take his eyes off Lance. He just looked so…. Beautiful. The sparkle in his eyes, as he stared at the water, and the soft expression of contentment that took over his face made Keith want to just admire him. He really didn’t know if there was anyone else that could go from being utterly obnoxious to so angelic in a matter of seconds.

“I like the water too, but I never learned how to swim… Swim well at least.” His came out soft as well, and he was still staring at Lance intensely.

“Really?” Lance asked, and he turned his head back to face Keith, and when their eyes met Lance became quiet, staring back at Keith. His stare was intense, but aslo somehow soft. Keith didn’t know how to explain it.

“Yeah, so I’m a little jealous that…” Keith’s face started to warm up halfway through his sentence, “…that you’re so comfortable in it. I wish I could be too.”  Keith’s expression completely fell from its hard exterior and was replaced with a little vulnerability. It wasn’t a complete secret that Keith couldn’t swim well, but he never really went out of his way to tell anyone. When he was younger, his mother would take him and Shiro to the beach for vacation, Keith would only go a little more than toes deep. Maybe it was stupid to feel that way for telling Lance that he was jealous, but they had never really had a conversation where Keith said anything about himself. For this reason and possibly another, his face was now starting to fill with embarrassment, as the two continued to lock their eyes on each other.

Lance quickly swallowed, and stood up abruptly breaking eye contact. He brushed his behind to rid of any dirt, and started walking down the trail again.

“Welp. Let’s go! We got some ground to cover before we reach the summit.” Lance said in a loud voice. As he walked away, Keith’s expression hardened again and he silently cursed to himself. Right, Keith was the one who kicked Lance to the floor and then told him he didn’t want to be friends. Keith was the one who couldn’t apologize, and now he was going to try to suck Lance into a deep conversation. Lance had every right to leave, especially since at this point, Keith was just sending mixed signals. He wanted to apologize but the words kept getting stuck in his throat, so he thought maybe he could pretend that the bedroom scene hadn’t happened and then they could get along again. Sort of get along. Obviously that wasn’t the case and now Keith felt like an idiot. There was no reason for Lance to listen or care about his life. With a heavy sigh, Keith stood up, and followed after Lance.

*****

 

After awhile, Keith took up the lead again, mostly because his legs were basically a machine and Lance’s not so much. Lance wasn’t sure if it was just him, but it seemed like Keith was trying to keep the distance between, which honestly was making Lance mad. Keith was better at hiking than Lance, but it felt like Keith was going a 100 miles per hour, which he had no idea how a person could even do that and not be exhausted. It had been about an hour since the weird moment at the cascade happened. Keith was being weird, staring at him, and talking about how he wasn’t a good swimmer. He had previously kicked Lance and told him he didn’t want him to be his friend. He didn’t know what game Keith was playing at, but he wasn’t going to fall for it. He already tried to be friendly, and he wasn’t going to put anymore effort into the situation. He’ll admit that he almost got sucked into whatever Keith was babbling about in the moment, but his will was strong. His face had looked vulnerable, and that’s something Lance never imagined seeing, but it still stood that Keith was a major jerk and Lance didn’t even want to be his friend. No way.

They kept trekking on but as time passed, Keith would get further and further away. At one point, Lance couldn’t even see him anymore. Lance kept stopping to take small breaks, as his legs were on fire. He didn’t mind being alone; it was actually quite nice to get to enjoy nature alone. He knew they had to be at least somewhat close to summiting the mountain. The trees were thinning out, and Lance assumed that meant that he was about to pass the tree line, so he had to be close because how big was this mountain? Sure, the scenery was great. Tons of Aspen trees, many starting to turn gold, as the fall season approached. It was pretty, but Lance was hurting. His stubbornness was keeping him going, and the fact that Keith wasn’t even in his sight anymore, but mostly stubbornness. His back was drenched with sweat, and he was sure if he looked down, his shirt collar would also be soaked.

Finally the path evened into a small valley without many any trees or shrubbery. The ground was mostly rocks, but the path was leading to a small mountain top, and that, Lance thought, was probably the summit. The temperature had also cooled a bit too, and luckily there were some clouds covering the sun, providing shade. Relief flooded Lance as he realized how close he was to getting to the top. He’d give anything to bet that Keith was already there. Irritation sparked within him, and with the last bit of strength, he marched on, determined to not stop for any more breaks.

Lance definitely underestimated the incline of Mt.Zarkon’s summit. There were so many switchbacks to the top, and he thought he might pass out, when he heard a snide voice from above him.

“You made it.” Lance couldn’t see Keith because the large rocks and remaining pine trees blocked his view, but he knew he finally made it. He quickened his pace, and once he passed the last few trees, he forgot all exhaustion and pain. The view was beautiful. There were so many mountains that weren’t visible from the ground level. They were all green with specks of yellow and orange from changing Aspen trees. There was a lake down below and it was glistening. Lance would give anything to go down there and just swim in it. He was in complete awe and was surprised that Keith wasn’t too. Then again, who knows how long he’d already been up there. Keith was lying against a rock with his arms crossed behind his head. Lance looked at him for a moment, before looking back off the mountain. He took out his cell phone and started snapping photos in every direction. There were dark clouds building in the south, but Lance didn’t think much of it as he clicked away. Once he was satisfied, he took a seat on a rock a few feet away from Keith, making sure there was a distance away from each other. They sat in silence, and Lance got out some snacks he had packed and enjoyed the view. Keith had his eyes closed and Lance wasn’t sure if he had fallen asleep or not. He looked so peaceful and Lance wished they were on better terms. If Keith wasn’t so hellbent on being a solitary edge lord who refused to care about anyone, then he figured they’d be good friends. An image flashed of the two sitting feet apart in silence, they were sitting next to each other and joking and finding comfort in each other’s company. It made his stomach do knots and produce a strange feeling, so he cut the daydream off and tried to focus on the view from the mountain.

A bit of time passed and Lance had finished his snacks, the wind was starting to pick up and it was getting a little chilly on the mountain top. He shivered and brought his knees to his chest to keep himself warm. It must have bothered Keith too because his eyes fluttered open and he sat up and looked at Lance.

“Are you ready to head back down?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s getting cold up here.” Lance answered, as he started to rise to his feet. His legs were a little wobbly from walking 8 miles up a mountain. He sighed at the thought of having to do it again, but downhill. Keith stretched a little before joining Lance to his feet. He took the lead once more and together they started down the long path.

They had only been walking for about 25 minutes when small pieces of small frozen balls started falling from the sky. They were light, but still gave Lance chills when they fell on him. He figured this type of precipitation was normal this high in altitude so he didn’t mention anything about it.

“Hopefully this doesn’t pick up.” Keith had spoken for the first time since they left the mountain top. Lance shrugged even though Keith couldn’t see him.

“I don’t think it will.” Lance looked up and saw a small break of sunlight, “It looks like the sun is coming back out.”

“Good.” Keith said, still walking. A few seconds passed and Lance caught a couple of the balls in his hands.

“Is this hail?” He asked.

“I think it’s sleet.” Keith answered, also catching some into his hand.

“What’s the difference?” Lance asked. Keith looked back at him and shrugged.

“I… don’t know?”

“Then how do you know it’s sleet?” Lance asked, in a condescending tone.  Keith rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“I don’t know, why did you ask if you were going to argue it? What do _you_ think it is?” Lance smiled at Keith for the first time on the hike. Despite them not being friends and Keith being a jerk, it was still fun to get under his skin. Throwing his hands in the air, Lance started to raise his voice.

“I don’t know what it is either. I’m not a meteorologist!” Keith scowled, and was about to started to say something else when suddenly the sleet, or hail started coming down harder and it stung each time one of the boys were hit.

“Ow! What the hell! Maybe it is hail!” Keith said, quickening his pace. Lance followed after him, his legs feeling more like jelly the faster he went. The two boys could only go so fast down the trail without losing their footing and stumbling. The hail was coming down harder, and it was quickly turning the ground under them into mud, making it slippery.

“This sucks!” Lance yelled over the loud sound of hail hitting the ground.

“I know, let’s just keep moving!” Keith yelled back. Lance was about to respond when seemingly out of nowhere a bolt of lightning caught his attention. Less than a second passed when a loud crackling sound filled the air. It wasn’t like normal thunder that boomed, this was much louder and sounded as if multiple firecrackers were going off at once. Lance froze in his feet when he realized how close they were to it and he looked up at the sky and saw how dark it had become from the storm clouds. Any patch of sunlight was gone suddenly fear started to fill Lance’s chest.

“Lance!” Keith’s voice snapped Lance out of it. He turned to see the shorter boy staring intently at him. “We gotta go!” Lance started moving his feet again, but he felt like his throat was constricted and he couldn’t talk. The ground was completely mud at this point and hail was still pelting him. Another bright light following by a cracking sound filled the air again. Lance was really trying not to freak out but suddenly every death he had heard about from being struck by lightning came to his head. Another one, followed shortly by another one. Each loud crackle sent chills up his spine, and before he knew it, he tripped and fell onto his knees and hands. He felt the wet mud cover his skin and his heart rate started quickening. He was so afraid and he could feel a panic attack coming on. It was really the worse time for one to happen. Keith noticed him fall and ran back to him.

“Lance, let’s keep going! We gotta!”

Lance just stared at him, and his voice shook when he finally spoke up.

“Keith, what do we do in a lightning storm? I’m scared to go. Like really scared.” Keith looked around as if he was looking for somewhere for the two to hide before meeting Lance’s eyes again.

“…I don’t know.” Lance’s breath started to become shallow and he closed his fists and then opened them, and then repeating it again. He could feel his body shaking. Another two crackles sounded and he was on the verge of crying. He looked down at the ground and felt the tears starting to form. There were so many and they were so loud and he knew they were so high up in altitude and not even close to the trailhead. He felt trapped and helpless.

“Keith… I don’t know what to do. I’m scared. My legs are wobbly from the hike and I’m tired and we’re so far from your car, and so high up, and-“, He stopped rambling abruptly, as a pair of cold wet hands touched his cheeks and forced his head up. Keith was crouching a few inches from Lance and he held his face to look directly at him.

“Lance…” Keith’s voice was gentle but stern, “We have to keep going, and the best thing for us to do is to keep moving downhill. We’re safer the farther down we go, okay?”

Lance gulped and nodded, averting his eyes away from Keith. “Hey! Look at me. We’re going to be okay. I’m right here, and I’ll make sure we’ll be okay, but we need to go.” Lance could hear the fear in Keith’s voice too, but he could tell he was doing his best to hide it.  Keith slid his hands down to Lance’s upper arms and started to gently pull them up. Lance stood up, legs still wobbly and body still shaking.  Keith let go of Lance’s arms and let him walk past him, giving him the lead.  Lance wanted to reach back to Keith the moment he let go, but he knew that they had to keep moving. Lance took a few steps, and then started to run down the trail again with Keith staying close behind. Some of the thunder was starting to sound further away, but there were still bright lights and loud crackles every few minutes. At one point Lance slipped again while going down a small path of rocks, He slid backwards and cut his left arm. The anxiety was causing him to lose function and he sat in the mud for a second time holding his forearm, wishing his body would just work and move. He gritted his teeth and let out an angry groan.

Soon, there was a gentle touch on his back, as Keith stopped next to him him again. He reached out his other hand and Lance took it, not saying anything. Every bolt of lightning and crackle of thunder gave Lance more and more anxiety. He wished he could calm himself down, but there was no time. All he could do was run and hope his legs wouldn’t give out a third time. His left forearm was bleeding and he dug his nails into the palm of his hand while trying to catch his breath. There was so much he was actively thinking about that it was making him feel crazy. They ran and Lance wasn’t even sure how much time had passed, but he noticed that they passed the trail that led to the cascade and he finally felt hopeful. He was growing dreadfully tired and he kept repeating to himself that they were almost there.

Finally, the two boys hit the end of the mountain path, which opened up to the last mile before they would arrive to the trail head. Lance stopped when he realized that the last mile was an open path with no trees around. He remembered being told that lightning hits the highest point it can. He was hesitant to take the first step towards the open path and when Keith caught up he stopped next to him.

  
“Keith, I don’t know if I can do it. There’s no coverage what if-“ He was cut off by Keith grabbing his hand and slipping his fingers in between his. It startled him and he quickly looked down to confirm that it was in fact Keith’s hand and then shot a confused glance back at Keith. There was a moment where he had no idea what Keith was doing and he was about to ask him, but then Keith took a step forward and pulled Lance along with him.

“We’ll do it together then.” Keith muttered. Lance barely heard him over the storm and the shorter boy didn’t look back at him, but Lance could tell his face was red, and he wasn’t sure if it was from running seven miles down a mountain or if it was something else. There wasn’t much time to ponder it because another scream of thunder crackled and Keith started running, forcing Lance to do so as well. The rest of the mile went by quickly, and that was due to the face that Keith was holding Lance’s hand and it gave him a really warm feeling in his heart and he was busy trying to identify what it was.

Keith didn’t let go of Lance’s hand the entire mile back, even though sometimes the angle from them running would be uncomfortable. There was no way Lance was going to let go. When they reached the parking lot at the beginning of the trail head, they both sighed in relief. Keith reached for his keys in his pockets and unlocked the car doors and the two quickly hopped in. Now that they were in a dry area they realized how soaking wet they were. The clothes they wore sat heavy on them and Keith’s hair was matted and dripping. Lance was wearing a hat, but even then he could feel the water that had soaked through it wetting his head.  Lance rested his head on the dash board and he closed his eyes. He could finally let himself calm down. A couple minutes passed and the boys were taking the opportunity to rest.

As Lance’s body finally settled down, he started to become embarrassed. Keith just saw Lance completely breakdown. He saw him shake, and almost cry. It was a very vulnerable point he was at and he can’t believe Keith of all people had to deal with it. When Keith started to speak Lance totally thought it was going to be about the meltdown and so he braced himself for it.

“I’m sorry.”  Was all Keith said. Lance sat up and stared at him with a quizzical look. He wasn’t sure he understood what he meant. Why would he be sorry about Lance’s behavior? This was not what he was expecting.

“What?” He asked. Keith was looking at the steering wheel and this time he was for sure blushing.

“I’m sorry for kicking you, and saying I didn’t want you to be my friend… That- that wasn’t true… And I get it if you don’t want to be friends, but I’m not good with… I don’t know how to deal with people… So- And I was upset and I didn’t mean to be a jerk. I know I have to work on my temper…” Lance’s jaw hit the floor, but he was quiet. He did not expect Keith of all people to apologize. He didn’t even know what to say back because it was so out of nowhere. He thought back to when Keith ditched buying a motorcycle to keep him company, and to how he was able to cheer Lance up at the fair. He knew that Keith wasn’t as terrible as he was trying to convince himself to believe, and he know that Keith was being honest when he said he didn’t mean saying that stuff to Lance.

“Well?” Keith said, interrupting Lance’s thoughts. “Say something, because that face you’re making is freaking me out.” Lance chuckled a bit and that seemed to throw Keith off.

“Hey man, it’s okay, just don’t do it again or I’ll burn that stupid alien shirt you’re wearing. “ Keith’s face hardened and he just stared at Lance.

“Keith, it was a joke.” Lance said, hoping that would change his expression. Keith turned his head back to the steering wheel.

  
“Oh.” He said. A few moments passed and he smiled softly. “How’s your arm?” He asked, and Lance raised his left arm to examine the scrape. It was starting to scab over and it didn’t hurt as much as before. It was then when Lance realized how dirty he was. His whole body was practically covered in drying mud.

“It’s good, but I feel disgusting, can we please go and never come back?” Keith laughed and nodded, starting the engine, and pulling out.

They drove for a little bit when Keith spoke,

“Hey do you want me to buy you dinner? You know, for almost killing you?”

“Hmm well I do deserve it for everything you put me through this week, but honestly not today. I don’t even think I’d be able to walk into a restaurant and besides I look like road kill.” Keith nodded but didn’t say anything, “But, since you offered, you will be buying me dinner in the future for my near death situation. Say, this upcoming Friday?”

“Okay.” Keith said.

“Oh man! I’m gonna eat your wallet empty.” Lance said, stretching his back along the car seat.

“Um, no. You’re getting dinner not a four course meal.”

“What!? That’s not cool, you’re such a cheap date.”

“You’re lucky I’m even buying you anything.”

“Yeah but you almost killed me today.”

“I didn’t know it was going to storm!”

“Didn’t you check the weather?”

“Didn’t you!?”

Their banter went on for most of the drive, and it ended in them both laughing with each other. Lance was grateful that Keith didn’t bring up his freak-out, and the more he thought about the warm feeling he had earlier, he realized that it was gratefulness. He was grateful for Keith being there for him, and showing him a side that he wasn’t even sure existed in the raven-haired boy. There was a compassionate side to him, and for that he was grateful. Honestly though, he was just grateful for Keith in general.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an FYI the next chapter will probably take a lot longer to upload. I have two mid terms coming up and a few essays as well as a couple other side projects, so this will be placed on the back burner at the moment, but I gave this a nice ending sooooo yeah.
> 
> Also this chapter was finished a week ago but I left my thumb drive that it is on at work, so i didnt get to upload it until I went back to work. Thanks for reading! Let me know if you liked this chapter! Also my user name on tumblr is rainbatches if you wanna follow me!


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